The Rise and Fall of Skate

[Music] [Music] for a brief period of time in the early 2000s skateboarding video games were inescapable the countercultural sport had been adapted into bits and bytes many times in the past but following the genre-defining release of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater in 1999 it became one of the hottest commodities in gaming year after year players couldn't stop shredding elaborate digital combos and developers couldn't stop pumping out opportunities for players to do so by 2007 however the genre was getting tired its best games were struggling to advance beyond what had been established at the end of the preceding millennium and its worst made it seemed bloated and exploitative it's in this window that EA black box introduced the world to skate where pro skater and most of the titles that succeeded it depicted skating as it appeared on TV sensationalized an effortless skate attempted to depict the sport with greater realism than ever before performing a trick meant moving the joystick in a way that mimicked whatever it is one wanted to perform rather than press a button to instantly grinder ollie skate would go on to become a critical and commercial darling spawning a spin-off and two equally popular sequels in less than three years only to disappear without a trace despite possessing considerable goodwill extraneous factors would lead EA to abandon the series while that was a head leaving players hoping for a fourth skate title out in the cold this is the rise and fall of skate [Music] [Music] skateboarding video games made their debut in the 1980s with Atari developed titles such as 720 degrees and skateboardin allowing gamers to shred their way through primitive cityscapes some of these early experiences would prove considerably popular with the EA developed skate or Die for PCs on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1988 grabbing minion players attention so much so that it was followed by a narrative focus sequel skate or Die to the search for Double Trouble in 1990 but the genre would only truly hit the big time in 1999 with the release of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater for the PlayStation developed by Neversoft alongside its titular extreme sports star who provided continuous feedback and directional advice throughout its creation Tony Hawk's Pro Skater offered one of the most intuitive and satisfying simulations of the sport yet maneuvering the game skateboard into performing all manner of death-defying tricks felt sublime in a way that had never been previously captured by the genre the game would go on to become a massive critical and commercial success spawning a legion of equally popular sequels and spin-offs and an even larger number of imitators by the mid-2000s however things had begun to taper off new entries in the Tony Hawk brands such as American wasteland and project 8 had failed to inspire the same enthusiasm as their predecessors and their copycats weren't picking up the slack in the eyes of fans the skateboarding genre had become stale bogged down by the sheer flood of experiences that had been released since the late 90s and by their collective failure to move past their predecessors designs it was around this time word got out that EA was planning on taking advantage of the genre sagging fortunes and release a Tony Hawk killer on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 EA had previously attempted to enter the 3d skateboarding market in 2002 when it commissioned criterion games to create a 3d reboot of skater die according to a 2010 interview with criterions Alex Ward conducted by games TM the reboot would have allowed players to get off their board walk around and talk with non playable characters ideas that other skateboarding games would eventually adopt but that were entirely new at the time however after EA demanded that this new skater die be large and feature filled enough to compete with Grand Theft Auto criterion quickly became overwhelmed on the project fell apart the game that would take its place was to be more focused in scope and handled by the company's vancouver-based subsidiary EA black box founded in 1998 black box had made a name for itself in the early 2000s developing NHL and Need for Speed games with their most acclaimed titles Need for Speed underground and underground 2 becoming among the most beloved entries in the racing franchise by 2005 however the team was anxious to make a skateboarding game as explained by the project's executive producer Scott Blackwood in a 2008 post-mortem with Gamasutra many of black boxes staff were real-life skaters who had been wanting to bring something new to the digital version of the sport for some time something different than what the Tony Hawk games had previously offered those games had offered traditional rkt experiences in which performing tricks was abstracted down to a single button press black box on the other hand wanted to translate the physicality of controlling a board into what the player did with their hands when playing if the player wanted to ollie for example they would have to do more than just press the X button on their controller they would have to hold their joystick down and snap it upwards to mimic the crouch and jump one does when performing an ollie in real life this idea which would eventually become known as the flickered system was met with approval from EA's heads and black box got to work rather than immediately create a rudimentary 3d environment in which they could test their ideas the team instead started prototyping the flicka system using an entirely text based game controlled by a single stick managed by a tiny internal team the prototype would read however the player moved the stick and respond with what trick that input had resulted in after prototyping the project in this manner for an entire year black box began expanding it into a full game in late 2005 using a flexible physics package called drives to simulate the feel of skateboarding in 3d space as accurately as possible a modestly sized open world rife with opportunities to shred one's heart out quickly came into being and the flicka's system expanded to include both left and right sticks with the left one controlling the movement and direction of the player and the right one their actions with their board eventually after two and a half years of work black box's passion project coalesced into a flagpole release for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in September of 2007 a groundbreaking experience called skate [Music] taking place in san van alona a fictional mashup of san francisco vancouver and barcelona skate sees the player attempt to become the next big name in extreme sports by completing objectives all over the city from racking up enough points to beat competing skaters to pulling off stunts and no skate zones patrolled by security guards the game has the player engaged in all manners of activities that push their love of the sport and the flicka's system to their limit outside of its main campaign skate also offered a host of online events for players to partake in allowing wannabe Birdman to cross the globe to compete for the best scores speeds and lines players could also record 30-second clips of their exploits and upload them to the game's official website while subsequent titles would eclipse its online offerings it was more than enough for skate to receive a warm reception from fans and critics upon release after slowly watching Tony Hawk and its derivatives lose their luster skate represented a fresh and well-executed take on the genre with the flick aid system the perfect antidote to the miasma that had previously been suffocating [Music] reviews of the game were not unanimously glowing some critics felt the games challenges in world could have used an additional code of Polish while others felt the flickered systems learning curve to be a little too steep especially for newcomers many also noted the disparity between the two versions of the game as was common with early multi-platform titles of his generation skates PlayStation version had its technical shortcomings including a less than stellar framerate when things started moving too fast but even with these issues most agree that skate was an incredible first effort on black boxes part a mobile version of the game would also launch the same day as the console version featuring a highly simplified version of the main game's plot controls and setting the mobile adaptation would receive a modicum of positive buzz from what few outlets picked it up but failed to generate much fanfare the console version of skate on the other hand would go on to create a massive splash at retail eclipsing the sales of Tony Hawk's Proving Ground which would release the following month to mixed reviews EA Games President Frank Gibeau would make note of this in February of the following year stating that black box's title had greatly exceeded their expectations in doing so and that it would be getting a sequel as a result but before the world would receive skate to a visit to Nintendo was an order [Music] while many third-party developers were not as privy to Nintendo as they were to Sony or Microsoft during the late 2000s ea still saw most of its port franchises released on the big uns consoles underpowered as they were the Wii and the GS had humongous install bases of players some of whom had likely already played skate on the HD consoles and were ravenous for more as a result once it was apparent that skate was a hit black box would get to work on creating spin-offs for both systems while they worked on a proper sequel collaborating with EA's Montreal Studio for the Wii version and exeunt Entertainment for the DS version these spin-offs both titled skated would release together in November of 2008 to a lukewarm reaction if Sandman alona has been left devastated by a series of freak disasters when as emergency services have now evacuated over 99 percent of the city's population a remarkable feat that has left our once bustling metropolis a virtual ghost town at work perfect many critics were appreciative of the game's sizeable story mode multiplayer offerings and my spot functionality which allows players to create their own rudimentary skate parks more divisive however would be the way that both games were controlled flicking it on the Wii is done by gesturing with the Wii Remote or for those who dared the Wii Balance Board while the D s has the player draw on the touchscreen with a stylus most agree that these control schemes just weren't as easy or intuitive as flicking a joystick but where some found them to be absolutely jailbreaking others contended that once they wrap their head around them they weren't as bad or as immature as one might expect like skate before it skate its console versions would be accompanied at launch by a mobile adaptation this time exclusively for iPhones little more than a port of the DS version the title would be largely overlooked with those few that played it finding its touch only version of the flick ik control scheme to be unique but too awkward to wholeheartedly recommend none of skated sitter Asians would prove as memorable as the game that came before them and while the Wii version of the game actually sold decently especially when compared to other third-party offerings on Nintendo's motion control console neither it nor the DS version led any sales chars on fire but the amount of thought and care that was put into them was respectable and in just two months the world was about to receive a proper follow-up to the original skate [Music] during the first skates production black box outlined designs of where they would want to take this series should a hypothetical ski - in skate three ever be greenlit according to Scott Blackwood in the Gamasutra post-mortem the studio didn't know with absolute certainty whether their passion project would ever expand out into a trilogy but if it did they had a strong idea of what it is that players would want from each entry for example they predicted that while most fans would be pleased with the feel of skateboarding in the first some might be disappointed by the fact that they couldn't get off their board and would likely want to do so by the next title thus when skate 2 launched in January of 2009 players found themselves not only able to disembark from their boards but engage in a host of activities that felt right at home in the sequel following the earthquakes that occurred in skated san van alona has been rebuilt by the nefarious Mongol Corp and utterly outlawed skating determined to teach the man that skateboarding is not a crime the player takes to the streets performing similar tasks and challenges to what was featured in the first skate to reclaim the city when on their board the player can now grab the terrain around them and take one or both feet off allowing for new tricks and moves previously impossible with the first skates quickest system such as hand plants and hippie jumps meanwhile went on foot the player can rearrange many objects they come across in sand and ilona allowing them to set up their environment in ways that allow them to more easily shred up the city and complete objectives most of these changes are also saved to the games memory meaning that the player can return to any previously manipulated section of the city and not have to redo their work between these mechanical changes brand-new modes like the Thrasher Magazine inspired hall of meet which tasks the player with injuring themselves as creatively as possible to score points and the inclusion of challenging new online activities that one could play cooperatively with friends players found much to love about the sequel while each main line game in the skate series would go on to be more or less equally well received among fans skate to arguably remains the best regarded of the three in the eyes of many fans it refined an already great experience into an even greater one and unlike the title that would follow brought just enough new content to fully justify its existence and feel like its own game like the series first title skate to would go on to perform well at retail especially compared to its competitors offerings after watching the market become divided following the release of the first skate Neversoft handed off development duties of the Tony Hawk games to a new developer named Robo moto who decided that their best chance of success would be to try and differentiate the series as much as possible from EA's offerings inspired by the rise in popularity of games played with large plastic peripherals like guitar hero and rock band Robo moto debuted a plastic skateboard that players would stand on and manipulate as one would an actual skateboard for 2009's Tony Hawk ride in a way skate and ride were guided by similar philosophies both believed in having the player mimic would ever move they wanted to perform in the game with a corresponding apparatus in real life and doing away with previous abstractions but we're manipulating a joystick when playing skate was quick and intuitive manipulating the ride board was cumbersome and frustrating the game would go on to be poorly received critically and commercially and would be followed up by a 2010 sequel Tony Hawk shred that would sell even more abysmally for the time being black box was the uncontested king of the skateboarding market unfortunately through no fault of its own things were about to turn south at the Canadian studio only a few days after skate two's launch reports surfaced online that a massive amount of black boxes staff had been laid off with some numbers going as high as about two-thirds of the studio's 350 employees the move came on the heels of EA announcing that it would be cutting 10% of its worldwide workforce in order to accommodate for losses the company had experienced in 2008 shortly thereafter what remained of black box would be relocated to EA Canada's offices in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby in June of 2009 where after development of the next skate game would resume it was a sudden and rough transition for the team and yet despite this skate three would arrive like clockwork just under a year later in May of 2010 7-port harborton a welcoming metropolis that embraces extreme sports instead of shunning them skate three sees the player used the clout they obtain during stay tuned to become the next great skating magnate well most of the challenges that the player engages in on the road to stardom are the same as before a strong emphasis is placed this time on accruing a squad of teammates to be a part of the players Empire which participate in various events and activities alongside the player on paper skate three has a lot going for it there are more tricks to learn old modes such as the skate park editor and the Hall of meet and new options and features that significantly add to his replay value meanwhile the games online functionalities provided a much more robust experience than what had been offered in the past with most of the games objectives now able to be enjoyed cooperatively with other players over the internet and a built-in social media platform called skate feed that showed other players recent activity providing continuous stimulation but as interesting as these features were many critics felt that in practice they weren't quite enough the game continued to look and feel as great as the series had ever been but where skate 2 felt like a substantial enough evolution of the series first entry skate 3 just felt like another iteration of what had come before a strong iteration to be sure one that longtime fans could safely by knowing they'd get a quality experience and newcomers would probably be best serviced getting over its predecessors but an iteration all the same like one in two before it skate 3 would sell strongly at retail but this time around EA wouldn't be as keen about the franchise's future prospects in an interview with Kotaku in December of 2010 former EA head John Ricca Telo would claim that while action sports games as a whole would continue he believed that the skateboarding genre had run its course at roughly a little under 5 million units sold across the PlayStation 3 in the 360 skate 3 had done very well by any other studio standards but within EA it was still the weakest link when compared to the company's other gargantuan sports franchises such as FIFA or Madden it may have come to be seen as an unnecessary part of EA's portfolio a fifth-wheel that wasn't a pending the rest of the company's operations but was still taking up resources that might be better serviced on more lucrative ventures whatever the exact reason skate three would end up being the last game in its series the year following the third skate games release black box would develop 2011 s Need for Speed the run the game received a mixed reaction and in February of the following year EA announced that the studio had been hit with layoffs again and that its remaining staff would shift over to creating online free-to-play in social games black box would soon after be renamed quick line games and assigned to produce content for the freemium MMO Need for Speed world before being closed for good in April of 2013 the studio's closure was immensely discouraging to those hoping EA would still reverse course on skate however a source of hope was about to come from an unexpected place house Gomez welcome to skate 3 this game is actually kind of old but I heard it was hilarious so I thought we were just gonna go freestyling and see what's gonna happen I don't know are you ready for a bob bob is excited look at him so happy in August of 2014 it was reported that let's play videos of skate 3 recorded by megalithic YouTube personalities such as PewDiePie had proven so popular that UK retailer game requested that EA print more copies of the four year old title while the videos in question were not especially flattering showcasing the buggy nature of the games Hall of meet mode and the incident as a whole arguably spoke more to the power of internet personalities than to skate 3 itself it gave fans still hoping that EA would take interest in their series again new reason to be optimistic better yet the Tony Hawk franchise seemed as if it were poised to make a comeback as well after hitting rock bottom with ride and shred developer Robo moto lichte swoons was 2012 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD a high-definition amalgamation of the first Pro Skater games the reboot received flak for lacking content and messing with the feel of the original games physics but it was still a decent enough return to form and now Robo Mota was gearing up to launch Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 the following year if there was anything that could convince EA to revitalize skate it would be seeing another series eat its lunch and even if it didn't come back fans of the genre would at least have a great new experience to play in its stead unfortunately Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 would be critically panned upon launch with players to writing the game's abundance of technical issues and awkward controls after being given an unexpected second wind thanks to YouTube Pro Skater 5 had again cast doubt on skateboarding games ability to succeed and EA wasn't about to express pity in an interview with IGN the following August EA's then chief competition officer Peter Moore would state that while they knew many people wanted a new skate title the company wasn't interested in delving into their back catalogue realizing that he a was unlikely to motivate itself to develop skate for anymore fans took it upon themselves in 2016 to start aggressively lobbying for the games creation on social media DA's official Twitter account Instagram account and more became flooded with thousands of posts demanding that the gaming giant revived the series with the hashtag make EA skate again becoming a staple by which fans continued to vent their frustration it's been almost seven years skate three is getting boring my xbox is of no use because of you just make the game before I sue fans rejoiced On January 28th 2017 when EA community manager Daniel Lincoln tweeted ashtag skate 4 out of the blue after years of waiting Lincoln's unexpected message suggested that the ephemeral title was finally progressing unfortunately EA CEO Andrew Wilson would quickly quash expectations stating at the company's quarterly investors call three days later that it was not presently making skate for fans still hopeful that the game would eventually see the light of day found their excitement Pete once more in mid-2000 18 when it was discovered that after switching them off in 2016 da had quietly reopened skate three servers days before their e3 press conference the timing seemed too auspicious unless it had been a mistake there was no reason for EA to have brought them back yet yeas conference would once again come and go without so much as a peep from the series elsewhere at e3 however a new skateboarding game titled session was grabbing headlines a Kickstarter success story from the Montrell based preacher Studios session attracted frustration from some jilted that it wasn't a new skate and accolades from others happy to see 3d skateboarding games continued to be represented though it bears resemblance to EA zone series sessions five-man team intends to offer a more realistic game than the former for goings-on rest APIs such as a scoring system in favor of a totally and mechanically deeper experience assuming creature studios fully delivers on its potential session looks to be a strong title one that may satisfy many jolted skate fans when it launches in 2019 but for better or for worse it won't quite be skateboard [Music] over the past decade EA has repeatedly stated and shown that it is only willing to invest in projects that it believes will reach as large an audience as possible the company has all of the capital and the resources to assemble a new black box capable of creating the next skate but if the series is perceived as being part of an underground niche and that Nisha's most recent release as a title has reviled as Pro Skater 5 it's unlikely that it will bind ultimately the future of this skate series will depend not on how many times fans write skate or on EA's Instagram profile but on how popular other independent developers skateboarding games prove to be if session and more significantly surpassed expectations then EA might finally be inspired to revive skate but if they don't then the faint Tony Hawk competitor will likely continue to remain dormant [Applause] [Music] our documentaries are crowdfunded and made possible by the generous supporters backing us on patreon if you enjoy our content consider subscribing to our Channel and becoming a patron to help us create more thank you [Music]

Channel: GVMERS

Views: 1,564,359

Rating: 4.8977494 out of 5

Keywords: Skate, Skate 2, Skate 3, Skate 4, Skate It, Skate 5, EA, #MakeEASkateAgain, Black Box Games, Black Box, Tony Hawk, Underground, Pro Skater, The History of Skate, Documentary, EA Skate

Id: 3cX7wisSiWI

Length: 27min 4sec (1624 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 18 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/acrunchycaptain]

It's still baffling to me that EA can't see the gap in the market that they left. They are leaving so much money on the table. I just hope session will turn into the spiritual successor it wants to be.

[u/Chet_Awesomelad]

I really wish I could play the Skate games on PC, or something similar at least. The closest (as far as I know) is Tony Hawk but that's too arcade-y.

[u/bananabm]

One thing that Skate nailed was the demo. From skating round landmarks dressed as darth vader in THPS, I was suddenly dumped in a small and entirely realistic and believable skate park. It was just like the skate area in my local park that I sat around at the edge of as a kid, watching people endlessly jump off foot high walls, fall off while attempting kickflips, and just skate around in a circle chatting shit.

And skate was that. I was there fumbling all the tricks and getting excited because I did a cool grind or nailed the jump up onto a box or something. As soon as the demo timer expired I instantly quit and reloaded. It was such a revelation to be playing something so grounded in reality, yet still fun and approachable.

[u/ChefDeezy]

This was a great video on the franchise that I feel was gone before it's time.

Maybe the future of skateboarding games will look bright. I'm really hoping for Session.