Electronic Arts has kept the upcoming Skate game close to its chest, but is now offering users the chance to play a very early build of it sometime in the future. The company released a video of this early build in action that was slapped with a disclaimer explaining how unfinished it was in addition to announcing sign-ups for its insider program.
This insider playtest can be found on the game’s official site. Skate insiders will be able to go hands-on with early versions of the game and provide feedback. EA also noted that it needs to “scale access” to the game gradually to ensure that things go smoothly, which means it’s foggy when when players will actually be able to jump in.
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Those who do become insiders will not be able to share footage or screen shots, something that seems unlikely to be upheld by everyone who participates. Giant Bomb’s Jeff Grubb posted a video in April of a pre-alpha build of the game that he was sent where someone put images over the watermarks.
The game’s FAQ page goes into a bit more detail. After once again stating that it is “very early,” the company explained that not everyone will be able to join the program and the criteria will be “based on varying factors defined by [its] goals for testing at that time in development.” The regularity of these tests is still up in the air and they will only start on PC through Origin, but will expand to other platforms down the line.
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These stages imply that Skate is still far away from launch. However, EA CEO Andrew Wilson stated in February 2022 that the game is “launching soon.” However, for a game with many missing textures, no complete list of supported platforms, and multiple claims that it is early in development, “soon” seems a bit optimistic.
