EA's Skate reboot is always online, and you know what that means

Skate trailer still - guy doing a sick kick flip over a fence

(Image credit: Electronic Arts)

The good news, according to a newly posted FAQ (via ShackNews) is that EA's upcoming skateboarding sim Skate is still on track for early access release sometime in 2025. The bad news, alas, is that it will require a constant internet connection to play, and an offline mode won't be offered.

"The game and city are designed to be a living, breathing massively multiplayer skateboarding sandbox that is always online and always evolving," the FAQ states. "You’ll see bigger things evolve, like changes to the city over time, as well as smaller things, like live events and other in-game activities. In order to deliver on our vision of a skateboarding world, the game will always require a live connection."

Former PC Gamer writer Nathan Grayson summed it up aptly: "If server upkeep becomes a strain on bank accounts, then severing the server is an option (at least in some cases). But that takes work—especially when games are increasingly designed around the online requirement, and some games can't survive a server-ectomy procedure."

He wrote that, by the way, in 2011—this is neither a new problem for the industry, nor one it's figured out how to address effectively. In most cases, game servers are taken offline, some number of people get a little angry about it, and we all go on with our lives.

But with sentiment against that approach coalescing into something more than just online grumbling, it's a little surprising to see a major publisher so blithely insisting on an always-connected requirement without also committing to a failsafe plan for when the servers go away, or at the very acknowledging the inherent limits of that design: No offline mode means no game, and you should govern yourselves accordingly.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

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