Take off your helmet, put away your Bad Religion records, and throw your skateboard back in the garage. While fans were eager for the announcement of a Skate sequel following an encouraging social media post last week, publisher Electronic Arts confirmed that the game is not currently in development.
Minds began racing last Friday when Electronic Arts community engagement senior manager tweeted out a very simple message.
https://twitter.com/HuskyHog/status/825216875021869056
It’s unclear what prompted Lingen to post this, but it hasn’t been taken down in the following days. It would seem that such a post was just short of an official Skate 4 confirmation from Electronic Arts, but this was far from the case.
During a question-and-answer session during Electronic Arts’ latest investor briefing, the publisher said that it was “not presently making Skate 4.”
The decision to not to green-light a fourth game in the series seems bizarre. In 2014, Electronic Arts had to re-print copies of Skate 3 due to the game’s renewed popularity. This was due in no small part to the influence of massively popular YouTuber PewDiePie, who featured the game on his channel.
Other skateboarding video game options have been slim in recent years, with the best option being the 2D OlliOlli series. Though the games don’t offer a simulation skateboarding experience, the are excellent platformers that force you to use a variety of tricks.
In the AAA space, the only real option right now is the poorly rated Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5, which is currently the sixth lowest-scoring PlayStation 4 game on Metacritic. Tony Hawk has said that he will continue releasing games bearing his name in the future, but he will be doing so without longtime publisher Activision. This would end an 18-year partnership that began with the original Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater.
