EA is rebooting its beloved skateboarding series as just 'skate.' and an insider program has already given a select number of fans access to an exclusive playtest, which just got updated with an EA speciality.
EA formed developer Full Circle to exclusively work on its upcoming sports game that's aiming to launch into early access this year. The Skate reboot doesn't have a concrete release date yet, but since the series is going down the free-to-play path, an in-game store and microtransactions and premium currencies were always inevitable. What's a little more surprising is that Full Circle added them to Skate's alpha playtests so early.
"To ensure we achieve these goals at Early Access we have enabled the option to purchase and use virtual currency (San Van Bucks) in our ongoing Closed Alpha playtest," Full Circle wrote in a message to players this week. "Your feedback will be greatly appreciated in providing a great experience at Early Access launch."
Full Circle also notes that account progress might be reset multiple times before launch, so whatever you purchase will be converted back into San Van Bucks before the next Skate game properly comes out as long as you use the same EA account for both the playtests and the full game.
Between Battlefield, The Sims, and its long slate of other sports games, EA is no stranger to bolting a digital storefront onto its games. And since the free-to-play model actively affects what progression and customization looks like in any given game, it makes sense that Full Circle would want to test its own freemium fluff in the context of all its hopefully-rad skating.
At least there'll be no loot boxes in Skate 4.
