Skate 4 or skate. is the return of EA's beloved skateboarding series with new developer, the Vancouver-based Full Circle at the helm. This is one of those beloved series that fans have been asking to see return for quite sometime, so when it was made official that happened pretty much alongside development kicking off.

With today's look at pre-alpha gameplay, which begins with some very early test footage, progress looks to be coming along nicely. There's some great animation and looks at the free-flowing movement that also includes off-board traversal. It's at the end where we get to see a somewhat fully textured world and characters do their thing.



The new trailer dubbed "still working on it" is a nice little reminder that skate. is indeed coming sometime in the future, but it also doubles as a call out to fans that want to jump in and play early as part of upcoming play-tests. As per the skate. insider playtest registration page:

It’s time for you to see what we’ve been up to. It’s still early, but we want to get this right and that means we want you to be a part of it.

As a skate. insider, you have the chance to play early versions of the game and provide feedback throughout our development journey. We need to scale access to skate. gradually as development progresses to ensure a smooth experience, and that means we can’t guarantee how soon you’ll get to play.

The tests will be closed in nature and beholden to NDA restrictions, though it sounds like things will progress to an Early Access style launch as there's plans to scale up access to the game. Developing something like this with community feedback and input makes a lot of sense, and that was key component for the skate-inspired Skater XL.