• News

EA's Skate. devs confirm the game will be always-online with no offline mode

The developers at Full Circle said it wants skate. to be a 'living, breathing massively multiplayer skateboarding sandbox' that is 'always evolving'.

TJ Denzer

April 25, 2025 1:50 PM

Image via Electronic Arts

2

As the newest version of the Skate franchise continues to develop under the management of Full Circle and Electronic Arts, the devs shared new details about the game this week. One of those details is that the game will be always-online with no options for offline play. The developers say this was on purpose in order to stay true to the vision for the game.

Full Circle published a Q&A post on the new skate. game’s website this week. There, the developers answered to a number of frequently asked questions by the community, and ultimately addressed the matter of whether the game would have an offline mode as well:

introducing The Grind - our platform to share details about skate., answer questions and get you the info you need before we open up San Van in Early Access later this year. in Vol.1 we're covering:
🛹 whats happening in the playtest
🛹 in-game store testing
🛹 and more...
let us…

— skate. (@skate) April 24, 2025

This might be disappointing to players that simply wanted to enjoy the experience of the new skate. whether its servers are online or not. It also certainly means that skate. could end up being unplayable someday if those servers end up being taken offline for any reason, such as we’ve seen with other live service games such as LawBreakers, Knockout City, and Rumbleverse. Obviously, the game is still in playtesting, so an outcome like that is still far out, but without an offline mode, it’s a looming threat just like on any live-service game.

Nonetheless, skate. is set to hit early access sometime in 2025. As we wait for more details, be sure to follow the skate. topic for more updates.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on BlueSky @JohnnyChugs.