Skateboarding game fans have been waiting years for the return of EA’s Skate franchise. Today, we finally learned the PC and console release date of the long-awaited fourth game in that series, which is simply titled Skate.
Stylized as “skate.” by EA, this revival was first announced over five years ago. It launches next month, although it’ll technically be in early access.
When is the early access release date for Skate?
The fourth Skate game is just a couple of weeks away
In a new trailer, EA revealed that Skate will enter early access on September 16. When it does so, it’ll be available across PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. Versions of the game for iOS and Android are in development, but they don’t have a release window yet.
The release date falls within the summer 2025 window previously shared by EA. At launch, Skate will be a free-to-play, online-only game. That might not be exactly what fans of the series imagined when they demanded a revival, but this release has been a long time coming.
Skate never quite reached the same heights of popularity as the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series from Activision, but it has a very dedicated group of fans. People enjoy its “Flick-it” control scheme, which gives players more precise control over the tricks they perform.
The series went dormant for several years following the release of Skate 3 in 2010, but the series became a cult classic with a passionate fanbase clamoring for a revival. In 2020, EA created a new studio called Full Circle to work on the next game in the franchise.
It has been a long five years for fans of the series since then, as Full Circle and EA mainly held closed playtests as they continued to work on and refine this game. This early access release is pretty much the first time anyone can freely check it out.
This new entry retains the Flick-It control scheme and wacky ragdoll physics of the older Skate games. It’s more of an online-focused sandbox game where players can freely explore and build a skating course throughout the open world of San Vansterdam.
With the release of this game, Sword of the Sea, and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4, it’s shaping up to be a pretty good year for fans of skateboarding-inspired games. That’s a far cry from a decade ago, when the genre was out of fashion.
