Skate 4 is now just skate. and will be free-to-play with microtransactions

It’s been more than two years since EA announced their next Skate game, but the devs at Full Circle have sat down to share some more info on what to expect from it. Annoyingly for folks like us who have to write about it, they’ve decided to drop the capital S and add a completely unnecessary full stop to its new name. Yep, it's no longer Skate 4, but "skate.". At least it’s going free-to-play.

skate. creative director Cuz Parry gathered some of the senior figures at Full Circle, along with Skate Twitch streamer Brandon Thomas to discuss where the game’s at. Literally, in this case, because they unveiled the name of the city the new game is set in: San Vansterdam. Because of course. Parry says this is a whole new city and not a retread of the first Skate’s San Vanelona. Still makes me think of the shoes, though.

Parry explained that the game’s not Skate 4 because it isn’t a sequel. He also revealed there won’t be a Skate 5 or 10, because this isn’t an “iterative title”. “We’re going to listen to what you guys say over the course of time, and put the features that you guys want into it,” he said. You can expect events and seasonal content drops, according to Full Circle’s head of product management Isabelle Mocquard. Hey, it’s 2022. Launch is a way off though, as the ongoing closed playtests are the “pre-pre-pre-alpha” build according to executive producer Mike McCartney.

Answering a question from Thomas, Full Circle’s general manager Dan McCulloch confirmed there will be microtransactions. McCulloch said they were following four main rules to make this fair: no pay to win, no map areas locked behind paywalls, no paid loot boxes, and no paid gameplay advantages. Mocquard said the devs had looked at free-to-play titles for good and bad examples, singling out Apex Legends for praise. “It’s mostly about cosmetics and convenience,” she said. Here's hoping skate. will follow suit.

Twelve years have passed since Skate 3, but it's only now we've started to hear a bit more about this new one. Earlier this month, a cracked version of its closed playtest has been circulating online along with footage of the work-in-progress game, but Full Circle also released a 'We’re still working on it' video a couple of weeks back. Now, we've got this dev chat.

It’s still early days for skate., but the game is coming to PC along with Xboxes and PlayStations. You also can register to become a skate. insider here, which lets you sign up to be part of closed playtests for the game.