May 11, 2010, more than 4,200 days ago, was the release date of one of the most notorious games of all time, Skate 3. Skate fans like myself have been waiting more than a decade for the next video game in the Skate trilogy, which is created by Electronic Arts. Despite the outdated release, Skate 3 still has a very special place in my heart, and I often return back to play for entertainment and for the great amounts of nostalgia. After years and years of rumors, EA announced that Skate 4 is in the early stages of development in 2020, but a release date is far from known.
Despite this, we have received some information about the game. On June 18, 2020, the “Skateea'' Instagram page released a video announcing that Skate 4 is certainly happening but failed to provide any further information about the game itself. Us Skate fans were left in a drought with absolutely no updates on the game for months until January of 2021. The Skate EA Instagram account made another post, this time announcing that they do indeed have a studio setup, which certainly excited many others and I. A couple months later we were finally hit with a sense of hope when the same Instagram account released another video, this time being more impactful.
This video was released in July of 2021, around a year after the first announcement of Skate 4, and we finally had something to look forward to. This video revealed the studio that was earlier announced, and we got to see the basic mechanics of the gameplay. I was glad to see EA use popular social media skaters in the community such as Garret Ginner and even include reactions from celebrities like Rico Nasty. Since this video game is quite important in gaming culture, it was relieving to see the game development was left in the hands of experienced developers and skateboarding enthusiasts.
Although we’ve received pretty scarce information about Skate 4, it has been confirmed that Skate 4 will be available on PC, Playstation, and Xbox. Due to the next generation of consoles being released after Skate 3, I hope developers will be able to keep up with the more modern style of video games.
There are a few things developers could do to improve the quality of Skate 4 over prior games in the trilogy. Being a skater myself, I’ve noticed that most people assume skateboarding is a lot easier than it actually is; therefore, I feel like making the game more hard and realistic would make it even better. Don’t get me wrong, landing all the crazy tricks in Skate 3 was super fun, but the constant easiness got a bit repetitive. Next, I feel like a better storyline could be incorporated into the gameplay. In Skate 3, your created character completed challenges to reach one million board sales, and on the pathway you unlocked new merchandise and skateboard equipment. In my opinion, I feel like this next storyline should involve working to upgrade your character like in the NBA 2K series, as that would not only make it more of a challenge, but also add more realism. Lastly, I really hope Skate 4 focuses more on online gameplay and makes the game cross-platform so all consoles can play together. Due to the fact most of my friends are on Playstation or PC, cross-platform would be a crucial feature that would allow us to all be able to play together.
Skate 4 could be a year or two away, but I’m certainly willing to wait longer for a higher quality game. My friends and I will continue to reminisce back on Skate 3 as we wait day by day for the next release, hoping it will be somewhat soon. It’s needless to say no one will be hearing from me for at least a week after the game is released, as I’ll be glued to my seat playing Skate 4 until my Xbox blows up.