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EA Sports Skate is set to release this year, and the developers just now confirmed the game will require an online connection to play. However, they also confirmed that because of this requirement, they can offer experiences they supposedly couldn't do before. What does this mean for players, and what does this mean in terms of gameplay? Let's dive right in.
Will EA Skate Have An Offline Mode Or Require An Internet Connection?
EA Skate (2025) will require players to be online at all times in order to play the game. Therefore, it does not offer an Offline mode. According to the developers from a recent Q&A blog, the developers explained why they made this decision:
“The game and city are designed to be a living, breathing massively multiplayer skateboarding sandbox that is always online and always evolving. You’ll see bigger things evolve, like changes to the city over time, as well as smaller things, like live events and other in-game activities. In order to deliver on our vision of a skateboarding world, the game will always require a live connection. That is probably not much of a surprise if you’ve been in our playtest.”
This decision to require online caused some backlash from the community. Never before did the Skate series require a player to always be online. Although the original titles did offer a multiplayer component, they also let players play offline. Now, you need an online connection in order to just skate around.
While the different live-events seem cool, it seems a bit ridiculous to force online for a skating video game. Sure, some games only offer multiplayer, which requires you to play online anyway. But a skating video game should not require an internet connection. Not even EA Sports' bigger games like Madden or FC require you to play online if you just want to do something basic.
On the other hand, it seems some players already knew this was the case. Those who played the closed playtest needed to be online to play. Furthermore, players who kept up with the game since its announcement probably had a feeling about this in the back of their mind.
But requiring online all the time brings issues of its own. You won't be able to enjoy the game if your Wi-Fi is down, or if your connection is iffy. But we'll see if these problems are enough to deter people from playing the first Skate game in 2010.
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