EA's pure 'Skate' campaign
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?



















(Page 1) Reader Comments
Reply
Reply
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
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
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.
Reply
Reply
its EA. nuff said
Reply
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.
Reply
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.
Reply
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.
Reply
Reply
Reply
EA Skate will suck if it is a bad game, not because it itries to stay true to real life.
Reply
Reply
Reply
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.
Reply
Reply
Reply
So you think realistic driving, sports, or shooting games are no fun either?
Realistic and authentic does not have to equal hard and boring!
Reply
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.
Reply
http://www.oxmpodcast.com/video/
Reply
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.
Reply