Skate developers confirm a Steam release is coming, console testing will begin this year

We've known since mid-2021 that Skate, the free-to-play reboot of the long-running skateboard sim that was first announced back in 2020, will be coming to PC. And now we know where: In a brief video clip shared on Twitter, EA finally confirmed that Skate will land on Steam.

The announcement was about as brief as it could possibly be: "Yes," creative director Cuz Parry replied when asked whether the upcoming game will be released on Steam.

Brevity notwithstanding, the confirmation of a Steam release is a pretty big deal. Games like Session and Skater XL helped scratch the board itch, but Skate—the one that so many players really wanted—has remained elusive. Skate 3, which came out in 2010, is playable on PC thanks to the RPCS3 PlayStation 3 emulator, but no game in the series has ever been officially released on PC.

The previous PC confirmation meant we were finally being allowed into the park, but the absence of specific storefront details left open the possibility that it could be made an EA exclusive. Not a great likelihood, perhaps, especially with Electronic Arts (and everyone else) having surrendered to the inevitability of the Big Bellevue Machine. But if EA did have interest in attracting eyes to its own storefront (and avoiding Steam's 30% cut), a free-to-play live service addition to a popular and widely-missed game series wouldn't be the worst shot to take.

The Steam confirmation was actually first made in a developer Q&A video that hit YouTube on December 21, but apparently went almost entirely unnoticed—likely, I would guess, because of the very close proximity to the Christmas break—until the Skate team tweeted about it. Unfortunately, there's still no sign of a release date, but Parry said console testing will begin sometime in 2024, and confirmed "100%" that Skate will be out before 2050.