Skate 4 Is Now Just ‘Skate’ And Will Be Free-To-Play When It Launches

Skate 4, the next addition to the popular extreme sports video game franchise, has been renamed to just Skate (stylized as “skate.”). Electronic Arts has decided to drop the number to better reflect the game’s new live service model. The upcoming game will also be the first in the franchise to be free-to-play.

“This isn’t a sequel. It’s not a remake. It’s not a reboot, a prequel; it’s not any of that,” said the devs. “We have the ambition to keep supporting Skate for years to come. Our vision was not to create a game that you’d play through and ‘beat’, but something that you’d regularly come back to and discover new things. Our dream is that Skate never ends.

The game is set in a new city called San Vansterdam and will come with new features and content that the developers will be adding to in the future in response to player feedback. These include new gameplay elements, content releases, cosmetics, events, and seasonal drops.

Skate will be available on PC as well as last-gen and next-gen consoles, and potentially mobile devices, with cross-platform and cross-progression support. As a free-to-play game, the developers have also confirmed that it’ll have microtransactions but are adamant that they won’t ever be pay-to-win. They also assured fans that they won’t lock maps behind a paywall, offer lootboxes, or sell in-game items with will grant any kind of gameplay advantage.

As for the release date, the team says that they’ll launch the game “when it’s ready.” We’ve already been waiting 12 years, what’s a few more months or years, right? Pre-registration is now open for the upcoming insider playtests for those who want to help run the game through its paces.