EA’s free-to-play Skate reboot is officially gearing up to launch into early access this “summer”, narrowing down its previous “2025” release window. But first, it’ll receive its “biggest playtest update” yet, which will be made available to all registered Insiders starting on 2nd July.
This latest iteration of Skate was formally unveiled in 2022 as an “authentic evolution” of the beloved skateboarding series, and is being developed by Full Circle, a studio specifically set up to work on the project. Its team – which includes original Skate creators Deran Chung and Cuz Parry – has been intermitently sharing progress reports since then, and select players have even been able to participate in early closed playtests.
Playtests were expanded to consoles at the start of this year (and were rapidly followed by microtransactions), and EA now says it’ll be opening playtests up to everyone, provided they’ve registered their interest before 27th June. This comes ahead of Skate’s “biggest playtest update yet”, which will pave the way for its early access release this “summer”.
Skate’s impending update is officially titled Update 0.27.0, and promises “upgrades, changes, fixes, and performance improvements”. EA goes into a little more detail in its blog post, but playtest participants can expect a visual overhaul, bringing the likes of increased environmental detail, improved lighting and shadows, better textures and effects, UI enhancements, and an increase in players per server to 150.
That’s alongside more missions and challenges – EA says players will now find over 140 challenges around the city of San Vansterdam – plus expanded character customisation options (including more hairstyles, gestures, and emotes), and overhauled progression and rewards.
EA’s blog post also contains answer to some frequently asked questions (no to keyboard and mouse support, yes to cross-progression, for instance), but the important bit is that anyone wanting to experience Skate’s impending playtest update on 2nd July will need to have registered as an Insider by 27th June, with access invitations set to go out in waves. Registration will no longer be available after this point, as Full Circle makes final preparations for Skate’s “summer” early access launch. It sounds like summer might be nearing its end by the time Skate arrives, however, given EA also says the game is now “just months away”.