When Skate 4 was officially announced back in 2020, I hardly dared believe that it was real.
Electronic Arts' beloved skateboarding sim has been on ice for over a decade now. The thought that it was finally coming back? Well, it was just too good to be true.
And yet, here we are. Back when the game was announced EA stressed that it was still "really, really early in development", which means the publisher hasn't really had anything to show us. And while EA still doesn't have anything official to show us, we do at last have our very first look at Skate 4 in action.
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As reported by VentureBeat journalist Jeff Grubb, EA has been running plenty of tests for an early, pre-alpha version of Skate 4. And now footage of some of those tests have found their way online.
You can see the video below. But before you start blinding ripping it apart for not looking exactly the way you expected, it's important to remember that the game is still in development, and this is prototype footage. Given how gorgeous the other Skate games all look (relative to their release dates), you know the final version of Skate 4 is going to be stunning.
The most exciting thing here is how smooth the actual gameplay looks. As Grubb observes, they're "trying to get the feel right", which should of course be the number one priority for a Skate game. Get that slick skating action down first, and stuff it with NFTs later.
That NFT thing was a joke, to be clear. We don't really know what to expect from Skate 4 when it launches, beyond the fact that it's going to have a heavy focus on UGC (user-generated content).
During EA's Q3 2022 earnings call, CEO, Andrew Wilson discussed the importance of UGC in all its games, and teased its role in the upcoming Skate.
“It has been at the very centre of The Sims for a long time, it's at the very centre of modes like FIFA and Madden Ultimate Team, it's at the very centre [of] the design of Skate which will be launching soon,” Wilson said. “This UGC content is really just an extension of the social interaction that I'm able to have with my friends in and around experiencing this entertainment. I believe that's going to be a really important part of our future.”
Hopefully we'll learn more about Skate 4 this summer.