The long-awaited skateboarding sim Skate from Electronic Arts is almost here, with an early-access release scheduled for spring. But eager gamers can shred even earlier. A closed playtest is happening, and EA is inviting gamers to sign up for an invitation.
The playtest is available for PC as well as Xbox and PlayStation, according to EA’s Insider Playtest site for the game, where the publisher says it has increased the number of players being invited to try out Skate ahead of its early release. Those who participate are being promised an in-game skateboard and sticker rewards.
The caveats are that the playtest is closed and participants aren’t allowed to post any screenshots or streams of the playtest online and must agree to the terms of the program. EA says playtesters will give feedback and “Help shape the future of skate.” (Lowercase is EA’s capitalization style for the game.)
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The new game will join an increasingly crowded market of so-called live-service games — those that are actively and incrementally updated and often feature events — that include Fortnite from Epic Games, EA’s own Apex Legends and the recently released Marvel Rivals from NetEase Games. EA is shutting down several long-running games like this in 2025 including The Simpsons: Tapped Out and UFC 3. The only two games on EA’s Coming Soon page are Split Fiction, a co-op action-adventure, and Plants vs. Zombies 3.
One of its biggest recent successes has been the ongoing strength of The Sims 4, which went free-to-play in 2022. It added 15 million players in 2024 despite the game being 10 years old.
Skate was first announced as Skate 4 in 2020, but not much was heard about the title until last summer, when a trailer featuring I Think You Should Leave comic Tim Robinson was released as part of Summer Game Fest. The previous game in the series, Skate 3, debuted back in 2010.
The game’s official website includes developer diaries and videos, but the last one posted was in June 2024. Skate will be free-to-play with cosmetic microtransactions.
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