After what felt like a lifetime of rumours and false starts, EA finally confirmed that they are working on a brand new Skate title at the EA Play event in June 2020. This will be the first new game in the Skate franchise since Skate 3 in 2010.The Skate games have a cult-like following from both skateboarders and non-skaters alike. Although Skate 3 saw middling success upon initial launch, it saw a great revival when YouTube giant, PewDiePie, became obsessed with the game's ragdoll physics. More recently, we have seen a variety of skateboarding games launch including remasters of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 and 2, Skater XL and Session. With skateboarding making its Olympic debut in Tokyo 2020, this seems like the ideal time for the series to make its return.We've gathered up all the details, and here is everything we know about Skate 4 so far.

Skate 4 release date

There have been no official announcements regarding the release date of Skate 4. The developers are insisting that it will be released only when it's ready.

During the initial reveal, the game was said to be very early in development. A page on the developer's website still shows multiple job openings for the Skate development team, hinting that the game is quite a way from being finished.

During EA's Q3 2022 earnings call EA CEO, Andrew Wilson, stated that the game will "launch soon", and we didn't hear much more for a while. In late March 2022, seasoned leaker Tom Henderson revealed that the game had been in playtesting for a good while, indicating that a reveal might not be too far off:

In April 2022, VentureBeat's Jeff Grubb spotted some leaked footage that was posted on a burner account on Odysee. It gave us a quick glimpse of some pre-alpha gameplay.

You can see that the game is still in its early stages but Grubb says the developers are focusing on the gameplay mechanics first, arguably the most important aspect of a skateboarding game. This leak doesn't necessarily indicate that it's going to come out anytime soon, and you can clearly see there's a lot of work to be done.

Tom Henderson popped up again in late June 2022 to report that he expects a reveal for Skate 4 to come in July 2022, pinning the game for a 2023 release window and hopefully showing the first glimpses of polished gameplay, so keep an eye out for that.

Skate 4 playtest

Further to the above speculation, EA popped up at the end of June 2022 to open up a registration system for players to signal their interest in playtesting the game, which it says is still a ways off being even in an alpha state.

You can sign up if you have a PC, since it's not open for consoles, and potentially get the chance to test the game a few times during the rest of its development, although there's no guarantee you'll be selected. The video announcement above also contains some nice (rough and in-engine) gameplay hints.

Skate 4 gameplay

During "The Board Room" live stream on July 14 2022, it was announced that the next Skate title will be effectively run like a free-to-play MMO.

The team aren't treating the game as a sequel, instead, it's a standalone experience that will receive many years of updates including new content releases and seasonal drops.

Of course, since it's a free-to-play title there will be microtransactions in order to monetise the game, but, thankfully, the developers have set strict ground rules for how these will be implemented.

During the live stream, Full Circle promised there will be no loot boxes, no map areas locked behind a paywall and no game-altering pay-to-win style mechanics.

However, Insider Gaming reports that a loot box system has recently been added into the playtest. These boxes can currently only be unlocked using an in-game currency called Stars, which are earned by completing challenges. These boxes do seem to be limited to cosmetic items, at least, including stickers for your board, clothing and furniture.

It is not yet clear if we will get a traditional story mode, but we got some glimpses of cooperative areas in which players can build skateparks together, and it looks really fun.

Skate 4 trailer

While there is currently no trailer for Skate 4, we have been given a few teaser videos from the developer.

The first video was the announcement itself at EA Play 2020. It's a short video that essentially just confirms that Skate 4 is a thing without revealing much else.

The next glimpse came about a year later. Again, a quick video with no gameplay footage but this time featuring influential members of the skateboarding community, such as Garrett Ginner and Atiba Jefferson, reacting to gameplay. We also got a few shots showing us some motion capture action and the general message is 'be patient, we're working on it.'

In the time since we've had a couple of development update videos. Alongside the latest update, the team dropped a playtest highlight video which gives us a better look at some of the new mechanics in their pre-Alpha state.

Skate 4 platforms

Not all the platforms have been revealed, but we first learned that Skate will be coming to PC for the first time ever.

Then, during a live stream hosted on the Skate YouTube channel, it was revealed that the next Skate game will be coming to as many platforms as possible and will support cross-platform play.

This includes a mobile version of the game, presumably on both Android and iOS, along with all the major consoles.

Skate 4 developer

In January 2021, EA confirmed that it had created a new development team to work on Skate 4 called Full Circle. The new studio is based in Vancouver alongside EA Sports and Respawn Entertainment.

Full Circle's General Manager is Daniel McCulloch, previously GM of Xbox Live for Microsoft. He said "The fans wished Skate back into existence, and we want them to feel involved in the process from development to game launch and beyond," he continued "We’re all about having fun and making great games that people want to play with their friends."