During last year’s EA Play event, there was the reveal that a new Skate game was on the way. Fans of the long-running skateboarding sim have heard precious little since then though. It seemed as though all was too quiet, until this week. It turns out that EA was just getting things setup behind the scenes. The new studio is called Full Circle and has formed in Vancouver.
The team already has some solid talent lined up. Full Circle will be led by former Xbox Live boss Daniel McCulloch, with former Skate producers Deran Chung and Cuz Parry working as senior designers. The team seems very excited to get started on the project as well. And the tone of the announcement suggests that they’re making a game for the fans.
Many fans want to see something more in line with the vision of the now-defunct EA Black Box, who last worked on both the original Skate and the later two sequels. That team established a robust franchise with a useful video editor mode, extensive creative tools, and a wonderfully smooth engine. The core skating was a pitch-perfect creation of the feel of skating via analog sticks, and it’s easy to see why people love it.
“The fans wished Skate back into existence and we want them to feel involved in the process from development to game launch and beyond. We want them to feel like they are a part of Full Circle,” said studio GM Daniel McCulloch in a statement. “We’re all about having fun and making great games that people want to play with their friends. And, we’re looking for more developers to help us build compelling worlds for players to explore.”
Though we don’t have details on what future titles from Full Circle will look like, we can hope that they put the emphasis on solid mechanics and a mix of fun local and online multiplayer. After disastrous games like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 that completely gimped the experience, we need something new. That 5-year-old game was a nightmare to play, and it’s fair to call it a shitshow that is an insult to other skateboarding games. Hopefully, the new title from the new developer does things better. We probably won’t see it for a while, but we can hope nonetheless.
