The developer of the next hotly anticipated Skate game has revealed that not only will it not be called Skate 4, but that it’s going to be a free-to-play game that takes place in a new city called San Vansterdam. Officially rendered as ‘skate.’, the new open-world game is not a sequel, a reboot, or a remake, but rather a platform the developers plan to support “for years to come.”
“Our dream is that Skate never ends,” says Isabelle Mocquard, head of product management at Full Circle, the development studio formed from a team of Skate franchise veterans and newcomers. Full Circle plans to continue adding to Skate for the foreseeable future, adding new events, cosmetics, and gameplay elements in response to player feedback.
The team says it wants as many people to be able to play Skate as possible, and to be able to play with friends – and so the new Skate is also going to be cross-platform between both last- and current-gen consoles, PC, and potentially mobile devices. Progression will be shared across devices, too, so you’ll be able to log in on whatever’s handy.
Full Circle says opting for a free-to-play model meant laying down some firm ground rules about the use of microtransactions in Skate, which will be necessary to bring in the revenue needed for long-term support. Those rules, Full Circle general manager Dan McCulloch explains, include never making Skate a “pay-to-win” game, never locking map areas behind a paywall, no use of loot boxes, and never selling in-game items that offer gameplay advantages.
Instead, the team says, it’ll be using successful models like that of EA’s free-to-play battle royale game Apex Legends, with the idea being to keep players unified whether or not they decide to spend money in the game.
As for a Skate 4 release date, Full Circle says Skate will be launching “when it’s ready.”