EA's pure 'Skate' campaign
by James Ransom-Wiley 
{ Feb 28th 2007 at 8:55PM }
EA's been selling Skate without gameplay footage (pre-rendered or not). With a series of 'confessional shorts' -- featuring lesser-known, and therefore skaters' skaters like PJ Ladd, Chris Cole, Jason Dill, Jerry Hsu, and Dennis Busenitz -- EA is a building a thinly veiled promise. Skate will be pure; skateboarding without the "X," Gatorade, and lot of corporate sponsors. EA wants us to believe it's building art, not its next perennial sports franchise. This is smart advertising. But is it genuine?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Steve @ Feb 28th 2007 9:06PM
Skating is a boring sport...do something useful in your life
Nieker @ Feb 28th 2007 9:19PM
Yep skating sucks, curling is the future.
LaughingTarget @ Feb 28th 2007 9:23PM
EA is setting themselves up for failure here. Bill this as a "real" skating game, and you have yourself an incredibly boring game. Skateboarders can't do half the crap that your avatar in Tony Hawk can pull off. Their moves tend to be boring and vanilla. The rush comes primarily from actually doing it, watching it makes most people snicker a little.
To make it interesting, they'll have to break the whole "real" aspect of it, making it just another skating game, just without the logos. To keep it "real", the game will end up a financial failure.
Catch-22
AoE @ Feb 28th 2007 9:23PM
you have to ask about EA's intentions? They're a publicly traded company, they have a looooooong history of profiteering. Honestly? EA isn't capable of making art... just money. Even if the first game is magical (which I highly doubt it will be; we're still talking about EA, right?) it'll only take them a year or two to run it into the ground harder than Tony Hawk has been.
Kevout @ Feb 28th 2007 9:39PM
I personally can't wait for this,, THPS games are so unrealistic that as a skater it really turns you off. I'm glad there will be a fresh perspective on skating games with this one.
stilltron @ Feb 28th 2007 9:53PM
First... who is going to believe that EA is anti corporate?
Second... elements of skateboarding culure have always been about sponsorship. Every kid, when I was growing up (a while ago) wanted to be sponsored by some skate-shop. All pro/pro-am skaters were sponsored by some company...like Vans, Airwalk, Vision, clothing companies... etc.
It'll be interesting to see what EA comes up with... if I were them, I'd celebrate the sponsors that contribute to current skateboard culture.
REUYL @ Feb 28th 2007 9:41PM
I actually welcome a realistic skateboarding game. A game like that with realistic physics would actually be challenging, unlike THPS which lets you ollie into triple heelflips.
James @ Feb 28th 2007 9:45PM
The original Thrasher game for PS1 (came out about the same time as the original Tony Hawk) is actually a cult favorite with skaters due to it's more realistic style and sense of progression.
As for being boring, the EA game doesn't have to be so realistic it's boring. It merely needs to be less comical than Tony Hawk has become. The hawk games are a bit stale, so some competition may just be what the doctor ordered.
Fatass of Kickassness @ Feb 28th 2007 9:46PM
Knowing how challenging pulling off real complicated tricks is... I know for a fact that this game is going to be complete and utter crap. Sure, a realistic skating game might sound fun at first, but when you think about it... it'll feel just like trying to pull off rough tricks, except you're not actually doing it.
steve17 @ Feb 28th 2007 9:46PM
no kidding #4. even the rare occasion (if ever) EA makes something good. it wont last 3 games. it will go down the tune like every other franchise EA has made did before it.
its EA. nuff said
PuuChuu @ Mar 1st 2007 10:49AM
Hmm. Well, to me, this may be a good idea. I personally got bored with the Tony Hawk games, so a game that is "different" may be nice...but then again, Dave Mirras BMX was supposed to be different...I guess glitching on rooftops is different.
dsub @ Feb 28th 2007 10:15PM
LaughingTarget-
you must be joking. A realistic skateboarding game would be absolutely amazing. Anyone who knows anything about skateboarding knows that it's all about style and rhythm. Try playing Tony Hawk and doing tricks in the game with some style or rhythm...it's not easy. A game based around this would be badass. Unfortunately, to the average joe, skateboarding is all about being "eXtreme" and going 100 feet into the air while you 80 backflips.
Norm @ Feb 28th 2007 10:38PM
You are absolutely right about the skaters being 'skaters skaters'. I have met or worked with every single skater in the trailers for this game, and these are by no means rockstars or people in it strickly for fame or money. (except rob dyrdek... maybe.)
the THRASHER game is one of my all time faves under street fighter 3 3rd strike. If you are into skateboarding, there is no doubt that you should look forward to this game. If they are looking at skateboarding as closely as they look at things like Football (madden) or Basketball, I'd gladly welcome EA games back into my library. Of course they are just a corporation, but This series is certainly looking to stay true to the culture that is the inspiration for it.
Who the hell came up with the name 'boom boom huck jam' anyway? Sounds a lot more corporate and commercial than this.
Norm @ Feb 28th 2007 10:51PM
Also, Jason Dill looks like a crackhead. What happened to him on the osbornes? he's been weird ever since.
dsub @ Feb 28th 2007 11:09PM
I'm not a fan of the ads though. I downloaded the ones up on XBL, and I was pissed. I want to see gameplay, not skaters describing what skating is to them.
ALF @ Mar 1st 2007 2:16AM
I don't see why a realistic skateboarding game would be any less fun than a realistic basketball/golf/soccer/football/racing game. The fact that people play Madden over NFL Street shows that realism can be fun if done correctly.
EA Skate will suck if it is a bad game, not because it itries to stay true to real life.
TxdoHawk @ Mar 1st 2007 1:15PM
Throw my hat in the "realistic skating probably isn't going to be fun" pile. You'd need to somehow translate the difficulty of pulling off even basic skateboarding tricks to a gamepad, all while making the experience enjoyable.
rashamon @ Mar 1st 2007 12:51PM
Seeing as EA is a big corporation and business comes first, what would the point be in making a clone of a franchise that already sells millions. If they make a copy of Hawk, which one do you think people will buy? EA's version or the original, even if it has become stale. It doesnt make business sense to make the same game. So I feel that this game will be very different to Tony Hawk, and by the looks of it, it may actually be good.
the_insider @ Mar 1st 2007 12:51PM
I think what most people that actually have an interest in skateboarding find unbearable about Tony hawk is that it is first of all way beyond believable, and the only way to succeed in the game is to push it so far that the result does not even come close to resembling skateboarding. I have heard so many people say that they play THP8 and force themselves to ride somewhat realistically in order to enjoy the game.
The second aspect is that the Tony Hawk games and the man himself (no disrespect intended) do no longer in any way or form actually represent skateboarding culture. It has become a mixture of MTV blandness and oversaturated pop with a dash of atrocious humor (crazy screaming real estate agents getting me to knock down the competitions signs? WTF is this doing in a skateboarding game?).
On top of that I think it's good that there is finally some competition in the skating genre again, in the end it'll benefit everyone into skating games.
Lastly, to dismiss this game because it is EA is quite immature. Yes, EA is a franchise milking machine, but amongst all the Fifa's and Madden's there are some really good games, and yes, even EA sometimes comes up with innovations. From what has beenreleased about this game so far it seems like this will certainly not be another TH clone. Judge the game, and not the publisher.
Gbogdan @ Mar 1st 2007 3:12PM
Thrasher is the best skateboarding game ever...enough said.
the_insider @ Mar 1st 2007 5:53PM
@ TxdoHawk:
So you think realistic driving, sports, or shooting games are no fun either?
Realistic and authentic does not have to equal hard and boring!
willie @ Mar 1st 2007 8:23PM
although i don't have THP8 yet, i am a diehard tony hawk fan since the first, and i think THP8 is really great (i play it alot at my friend's place), but i have THUG2 remix for psp, and i play from time to time just trying to mimic the realistic tricks i see in skateboarding videos, for example the 360 flip-nosebluntslide by eric koston at the end of the girl video
I cant WAIT for skate to come out, chris cole is the best skater and just the fact that he alone is in it sold me.
tomj @ Mar 23rd 2007 7:19PM
Love the comment at the top..."featuring lesser-known, and therefore skaters' skaters like PJ Ladd, Chris Cole, Jason Dill, Jerry Hsu, and Dennis Busenitz -- EA is a building a thinly veiled promise. " That is like saying bands like Slayer are lesser known in the Rock genre, those guys are skaters for skaters, but if you want glam....that's cool...
http://www.oxmpodcast.com/video/
hellagangst @ Apr 12th 2007 11:14PM
Since when were video games considered advertising?
Maybe this is EA's "thinly veiled" attempt to expand its audience... but that won't happen if they don't produce a quality game. It's win-win for consumer and developer when the developer releases a solid game.
Tony Hawk games are stale. That's coming from someone who owns all of them. EA is taking a different approach, and by working with the right skaters and doing all they can to make sure skateboarding is well represented, they're earning my business fair and square.