It’s been years since we got a good skateboarding game, and that fact—coupled with some runaway hope—led fans to expect a Skate 4 announcement at E3 this week. And for a brief few seconds, they thought they’d actually got one.
Despite not being mentioned during EA’s E3 press conference, here’s the scene before Microsoft’s show tonight, where things got so hype that Skate 4 was trending on Twitter:
There are skateboards right now at Microsoft's press conference… is Skate 4 happening? Tune in live! https://t.co/AXUlU4KwBq pic.twitter.com/XQcNgWaDGV
— Game Informer (@gameinformer) June 10, 2018
Then during Microsoft’s E3 show, a trailer popped up that showed skateboards.
On the big stage.
It could only mean one thing.
It was happening!
Oh. Turns out it wasn’t. It was a trailer for Session, an indie skateboarding game that had begun life as a Kickstarter project
Everyone thinking Skate 4 was gonna be released pic.twitter.com/f0ttrRLFGD
— Kieran (@MChederz) June 10, 2018
https://twitter.com/embed/status/1005920534721376256
https://twitter.com/embed/status/1005919532479758337
https://twitter.com/embed/status/1005920706247327744
https://twitter.com/embed/status/1005920158265892869
https://twitter.com/embed/status/1005929018678489088
https://twitter.com/embed/status/1005921282884587522
https://twitter.com/embed/status/1005919485944098816
Poor Session, I feel bad for it It wasn’t responsible for the nature and timing of its presence at the show.
And while folks were being dismissive of it, for anyone wanting a new Skate game—presumably because they enjoyed the “authenticity” those games strove for, and not just out of blind brand loyalty—Session is certainly saying the right things:
Inspired by the golden era of skateboarding, the early 90s and early 2000, “Session’s” primary goal is to make you experience what skateboarding really is: an incredible sport where there are no other goals other than expressing your creativity and achieving success through hard work, perseverance and bits of madness for no one else other than yourself.
But it’s not Skate 4. And for some that’s all that will matter.
