Yes, Skate Will Require An 'Always On' Internet Connection

EA's highly anticipated Skate revival volition necessitate an "always on" net connection.

In an updated FAQ connected the authoritative blog, developer Full Circle gave a "simple answer: No," adding: "The crippled and metropolis are designed to beryllium a living, breathing massively multiplayer skateboarding sandbox that is ever online and ever evolving. You’ll spot bigger things evolve, similar changes to the metropolis implicit time, arsenic good arsenic smaller things, similar unrecorded events and different in-game activities."

An "always on" request means games cannot beryllium played offline, adjacent if you debar multiplayer modes oregon similar to play alone. However, successful this case, Full Circle prefers Skate to beryllium connected to the net "to present connected [its] imaginativeness of a skateboarding world, the crippled volition ever necessitate a unrecorded connection."

"That is astir apt not overmuch of a astonishment if you’ve been successful our playtest," the developer added.

That's due to the fact that successful September 2024, the squad began its Always-On Playtest. The caller signifier "tests the crippled successful a imperishable unrecorded environment, with servers moving astir the clock."

Skate’s aboriginal entree motorboat is acceptable for 2025, though there's inactive nary confirmed day astatine this time. It was announced during EA Play mode backmost successful 2020, but astatine the clip was stated arsenic "very early" successful development. Since then, Full Circle has kept the assemblage up to day with closed assemblage playtests of aboriginal builds and, past month, added microtransactions.

You tin walk real-world wealth connected a virtual currency called San Van Bucks, which successful crook is utilized to bargain cosmetic items. It sounds similar Full Circle wants to trial Skate’s microtransaction acquisition system, arsenic it told players it wanted them to person a "positive acquisition erstwhile purchasing items from the Skate store."

"We cognize that utilizing existent wealth during a playtest is simply a small unusual, but we deliberation it’s the champion mode to decently measure and set the strategy earlier launch," the squad added successful today's blog update. "If you spot prices oregon different things changing implicit time, delight recognize that this is normal. And of course, you volition person the magnitude you spent during playtesting successful San Van Bucks (SVB) erstwhile we reset for Early Access launch."

Vikki Blake is simply a reporter, critic, columnist, and consultant. She's besides a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her astatine BlueSky.