Ethan Dickinson July 1st, 2022 - 7:20 PM
For anyone waiting on news from Skate 4, we’ve finally received our first “official” look at the long-awaited sequel to the beloved skating franchise. In a Tweet from the official Skate account, some “pre-pre-pre-alpha” footage was revealed of the game in development, finally giving fans a taste of what their Skate 4 will look like. In addition to this reveal, some online playtests are now live, allowing true fans to test the game out at this early stage.
we’re working on it, but it’s time for you to see what we’ve been up to. become a skate. insider and sign-up for playtesting at https://t.co/7Hh4xsMBxw pic.twitter.com/WU8fto8HUj
— skate. (@skateEA) June 30, 2022
While many of the environments and models look quite chunky, and many of the textures absent, the gameplay teaser does show off some impressive skating already. In addition, the teaser places a strong emphasis on community, stating that the developers took “what you told us” to heart, adding a variety of quality of life changes that have not been present in previous games. Judging from some of the fan Tweets thrown up as examples, Skate 4 should have an impressive array of additional features, from expansive exploration and changes to movement to a fisheye lens, cross-platform integration, and the best skating animations money can buy. Whether or not these changes have actually been factored in remains to be seen, but the minimal footage we have seen seems to point towards a greater level of freedom overall.
While the playtests have gone live, only via Origin on PC, the long waits on the sign-up site guarantee that anyone behind the curve on the playtest’s announcement aren’t going to be testing Skate 4 anytime soon. They have said:
We will be inviting players to participate in playtesting based on varying factors defined by our goals for testing at that time in development.
An FAQ from the site also states that the game is currently “very early in development,” so any hopes of seeing the game “soon,” as implied by EA, are all but gone. Have no fear, EA is looking to expand the playtests to consoles at some point, but this is all we have to go on right now.
