EA announced the fourth instalment in its Skate franchise – being referred to simply as “skate.“ – nearly two years ago at this point, but considering the fact that the game had barely even started development back then, and that Full Circle – the studio working on it – wasn’t even formally unveiled until as recently as January last year, many had guessed that the game wasn’t too far along in development, and might still be a couple of years away, if not more.
It seems, however, like that might not be true. In a report published on Exputer by known insider Tom Henderson, it’s been claimed that skate. is actually “much further along in development than people might have believed”, with working progressing well.
Apparently, skate. is now “well into its internal QA phase.” Internal playtest, in fact, has supposedly been going on behind-the-scenes for “months”, as can be seen on the Origin API under the codename “Project Dingo“. Henderson also states that contrary to rumours that skate. will be a free-to-play title, it’s going to be a traditional, paid release, and will also feature cross-play, as reports have claimed fellow upcoming title FIFA 23 and F1 2022 will as well.
Meanwhile, journalist Jeff Grubb also recently stated on the GamesBeat Decides podcast that “we’ll probably hear more about” skate. “pretty soon”- though with EA Play cancelled for this year, it remains to be seen when and how that will happen.
So far, we’ve seen next to no gameplay footage of skate., and details on the game remain scant. A behind-the-scenes development video last year seemed to suggest that the game would feature an open world setting, while a PC release for it has also been confirmed.
Earlier this year, EA CEO Andrew Wilson also said skate. would be “launching soon”. Read more on that through here.