Skate is Free-to-Play With Microtransactions, Will Support Crossplay and Cross-Progression

In its latest developer video “The Board Room,” Full Circle confirmed that Skate would be free-to-play. Cross-platform play and cross-progression between “last-gen, next-gen, and PC” will be supported, though it didn’t name the platforms. On top of this, a mobile version is in development.

Full Circle general manager Dan McCullo said (transcription via Gematsu), “We really want folks to get the most value out of their playing experience as possible, and be able to play on their favorite platforms the way that they like to play. And so Skate will be full cross-play and cross-progression, across last-gen, next-gen, and PC. We’ll take it even further, and as we’re continuing down this road, and do the same thing with mobile.

“We want cross-play and cross-progression on mobile. We’re pretty early on mobile, but we want to get the controls and everything to feel great. And when that’s ready, we’ll bring it all together and you’ll be able to play on whatever platform you want with your friends, and that’s going to be awesome.”

Interestingly, creative director Cuz Parry spoke about the “skate.” name as well. “It’s not Skate 4. And here’s the reason: This isn’t a sequel. It’s not a remake. It’s not a reboot, a prequel; it’s not any of that. It’s not a remake or a remaster, whatever ‘re’ you can do. This is it, it’s skate. We’re in this for the long haul. That means we’re not an iterative title.

“There won’t be a Skate 5 through 10. We won’t be pumping them out all the time. We’re going to do this. We’re going to listen to what you guys say over time, and put the features that you guys want into it. Okay, and one more time for the people in the back, it’s skate. It’s NOT Skate 4. Just skate. Period. That’s why we put a little period after it.”

Head of product management Isabelle Mocquard stated, “We have the ambition to keep supporting Skate for years to come. From the very inception of ‘skate.‘, the development team knew we wanted to create something different. Our vision was not a game that you’d play through and ‘beat,’ but something that you can regularly come back to and discover new things. Our dream is that Skate never ends. And to do that, we’ll be actively supporting Skate with new gameplay elements and tweaks, new content releases and events, and lots of seasonal drops.”

Of course, given the free-to-play nature, there will be microtransactions. No loot boxes or areas behind paywalls though, and they won’t result in a pay-to-win experience or provide any advantages. “When we were looking at this model, we looked at versions of it out there that we liked and those we didn’t.

“And we’re still continuing to explore different options, but we are taking inspiration from games like Apex Legends, or other popular titles that are free to play, where spending money is totally optional, and it’s mostly about cosmetics and convenience. With such a model, we’ll be able to keep the community united between the players who decide to spend and those who don’t. And that means that those social connections, those friendships made in-game, can flourish without splitting our audience,” said Mocquard.

So now it all boils down to the release date. When can fans expect to get their hands on the game? According to creative director Deran Chung, “It’ll be [out] when it’s ready. I mean, I could say tomorrow like Cuz would, but our mantra is: let’s not eff it up, right?

“So, we’re going to take our time and not put any unrealistic expectations on when it comes to a launch date. It’ll be when it’s ready. I mean that’s the right way to do it. But we’re excited to be extending an invite to the Skate community, to play the game in development this summer and in the coming months.”

Skate is currently in closed pre-alpha with a leaked build from September 2021 recently doing the rounds. For more details on the playtest and how to become an Insider, head here.