According to a report from Video Games Chronicle, it looks like the major focus of the new Skate game will be on “user-generated content and community.” This comment comes from an investor call that EA CEO Andrew Wilson had on Monday to discuss the belated sequel. To him, he sees Skate as the perfect series to inject some of the industry’s latest trends into.
“You take a game like Skate, and while skateboarding in and of itself has tremendous appeal to a huge, global audience,” Wilson explained, “there’s also another secular trend that’s happening inside our industry around user-generated content, open-world, and interaction.” He then brought up Nyjah Huston, a pro-skater turned artist that has become fairly successful over the years.
To Wilson, skating opened up Huston’s world and allowed him to explore a different form of art. That’s the kind of thing he hopes to achieve with the new Skate. “So as we think about our future and we think about growth, a big part of it is choosing games that not only themselves have appeal, but can benefit from secular trends in our communities that we think will grow them even beyond our initial expectations.”
I can see where Wilson is coming from including user interaction through art. Skate culture has absolutely been used as a means of rebellion and identity over the years. A lot of suburbanites rejected common ideas of livelihood and went out to become successful in an untapped market. I’m still a bit worried EA is chasing the wrong idea here.
Skate was never a series that had bespoke levels or anything, but cramming in an open-world and expecting people to customize everything sounds like the latest entry will be lacking in identity. Then again, the Forza series has always enjoyed a thriving user market for car decals and designs and no one has complained.
It’s more that Wilson is so jazzed about including these different trends that has me worried. We’ve waited more than a decade for Skate to be resurrected and I don’t want to see EA miss the landing. I’d just like a healthy competition between Skate and the Tony Hawk franchise.
Source: VGC
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