Skate, the free-to-play rendition that's currently in early access on PS5 and PS4, has just announced some of the content and changes coming soon in Season 3, and one point in particular has fans really riled up.
In a new update on the official site, developer Full Circle has announced that the tutorial island will be expanded and made available to visit, but there's a catch.
The island, which will be renamed Isle of Grom, is essentially the tutorial area you play when you first start the game, but the team has added to it with new playable areas and skate spots not seen in the tutorial.
What's confounding fans of the game is the decision to put Isle of Grom behind a paywall, at least initially.
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Here's how it breaks down:
- 10th March to 14th April: Only those who have Skate Pass Premium will have access to the island.
- 14th April to 5th May: Open access to all players, when a special in-game event will take place.
- 5th May to 2nd June: Those who don't have Skate Pass Premium can visit Isle of Grom by spending 500 Rip Chips (earnable in-game currency) to get a ticket, which allows access for 24 real-time hours.
So, it's a bit convoluted, and strictly speaking you will have free access to the island. However, if you don't want to spend any money, and want to continue playing Isle of Grom after the special event ends on 5th May, you'll have to spend 500 Rip Chips to go back, and only for a limited time.
This restrictive plan has confounded fans of the game. As many have pointed out already, one of the promises Full Circle made early in proceedings was that the game would not put map areas behind a paywall, and this doesn't align with that.
The official response amounts to "sometimes plans have to change":
Plans changing, especially in an early access game that's still in active development, is fair enough, but it seems fans feel betrayed by this decision all the same.
For the record, Season 3 is also adding brands such as Adidas to enrich Skate Pass rewards, improvements to the store allowing you easier access to all the cosmetics, and a new Premium+ option for the Skate Pass.
Another update coming soon promises to delve into more Season 3 details, with Full Circle teasing "darkslides" and "grittier streets".
What do you think about this? Are you still enjoying Skate? Tell us in the comments section below.
Comments 12
The playerbase on Steam nosedived since launch, so not surprised they are doing this. It is EA though, so if the game was in a healthy state they would still likely charge for it.
free to play game wants to make money shocker
The sense of entitlement from gamers here is unreasonable but I'm sure it's from a vocal minority. Sadly, it's what will get attention from the media who feel compelled to highlight the poor reaction from some fans about some transient non-issue in a game that's not even out of early access. This just puts needless pressure on these devs and the game. It really does the gaming industry a disservice. What is the point of this report? Is there a need to know that there's a subset of gamers who are annoyed that a F2P game that's the devs are still working on and trying new things to see what sticks, is still free after a couple of months as they trial something?
If this became permanent it's actually newsworthy. Until then, this is just sensationalism.
Should have been a regular game with post launch GaaS support. Or better yet, content complete at launch.
Btw skate 1 2 and 3 are backwards compatible (atleast on xbox) and as far as Im aware 1 amd 3 can still be bought..... just saying. We deserve better than this cashhrab excuse
I don't see any issue with this if it was exclusive for a timed period behind a paywall (if necessary), as maybe a testing ground before general release with additional benefits for the early adopters.
But this is ridiculous. We're long past the days of DLC Maps being paywalled permanently in games like COD and Battlefield.
I get they need to make money to continue the service, but this ain't it.
Oh no!
The free to play game expects you to pay for some content?
How dare they do what literally every other free to play game already does?
Anyway...
"sometimes plans have to change":
🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄
Devs really need to stop saying things they know they can’t keep to 🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑👀
As someone who’s put over 60 hours into this game I can confidently say that this is just the cherry on cake for us skate players atm. Since launch there has been a distant lack of content with a focus on selling generic and recoloured items for real cash in the store. On top of this the events they have released have been so lackluster and low effort with skateparks which are nigh on un-skateable. Pretty sure that the community park updates they’ve released are AI generated as the park lines make ZERO sense for skating.
If you look at the board designs in the cash shop they are all clearly AI generated too.
For long term skate fans, this whole saga just screams low effort cash grab and represents absolutely nothing of skate culture. Such a shame!
This kind of stuff is why I never bother with “free to play” games.
some weird takes in the comments… is this essentially a subscription to access part of the map?? why couldn’t they just make the game paid like the others in the series (we know the answer)
the video game industry was doing fine before all this subscription and micro transaction s*** started, why is everyone acting like they’re EA shareholders?
LOL of course they are
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