The third entry in EA's growing skateboarding franchise is coming in 2010, with rival street crews vying for prime Port Carverton turf in Skate 3.
So how is EA's Skate franchise evolving in the face of Activision's new peripheral-based entry in the Tony Hawk franchise? This time around it's all about the community and teamwork, with an all-new co-op mode that allows teammates to complete challenges together, advancing each other's careers in the process. Senior producer Jason DeLong explains the importance of the social side of Skate 3.
"The social and community aspects of the SKATE franchise are something we've always embraced, but we've never done anything to the scale you're going to see in SKATE 3. We're giving gamers a very unique experience by providing them with the tools they need to build their ultimate team or to create a team comprised entirely of their online friends. From there, it's all about proving yourself – teaming up, and throwing down."
Along with the emphasis on working together, Skate 3 also features an expanded Hall of Meat, a brand new skate.School to help players learn the ropes, and enhancements to the user-created content with the skate.Create feature suite, which allows players to create their own graphics, videos, and skate parks.
Skate 3 is currently in development for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 at EA's Black Box studio, with a target release date (in the UK at least) of May 2010. Check out the teaser trailer below to witness people skating, which I suppose is all you can really ask for.