EA Establishes New Studio To Develop Next Skate Game

The Skate franchise has a new studio that will lead development on the upcoming game, publisher EA confirmed. Called Full Circle, the "geo-diverse" team will be in charge of bringing the iconic skateboarding simulator back to life with a brand-new entry the publisher announced back in June 2020.

Leading Full Circle is studio general manager Daniel McCulloch, the former head of Xbox Live. McCulloch will be joined by Cuz Parry and Deran Chung, who served as the creative forces behind the Skate franchise and integral parts of the development of the three original games. Though based in Vancouver, the team is staffed by employees from around the world to "embrace a geo-diverse team and culture" focused on the next evolution of the Skate series.

In a press release announcing the new studio, McCulloch said Full Circle is looking for more developers to help out with "making great games that people want to play with the friends."

"The fans wished Skate back into existence and we want them to feel involved in the process from development to game launch and beyond," McCulloch said. "We want them to feel like they are a part of Full Circle. We're all about having fun and making great games that people want to play with their friends. And, we're looking for more developers to help us build compelling worlds for players to explore.”

Chung and Perry echoed McCulloch's sentiment, saying they're "stoked" to be working on the Skate franchise again after being dormant for so many years despite the clamoring from fans.

"We're so stoked to be back working on Skate," Chung and Perry said in the press release. "Some would say things have come full circle."

In June 2020, EA confirmed Skate would make a return. The announcement was met with excitement online, though EA and now new-developer Full Circle have not revealed a release date or any real details. Despite the skateboarding genre seeing a resurgence in Crea-ture Studios' Session, Easy Day Studios' Skater XL, and Vicarious Visions' Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2, the last entry in EA's series was Skate 3, which come out in May 2010 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.