Only two days ago, EA announced that the upcoming Skate would be a live-service, free to play game which would be supported for "years to come." A detailed video revealed the possibilities this structural shift opens up in terms of gameplay and future content. What's more? The game will be available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and even mobile, with full crossplay and cross-progression capabilities.
It also revealed that while there will be microtransactions, the game will not follow a pay-to-win formula or include any paid loot boxes. However, a dataminer has allegedly stumbled upon something in Skate's source code that looks an awful lot like loot boxes. The image posted on Reddit reveals a mechanic called Swag Bags, containing randomized apparel. These Swag Bags can be redeemed for something called 'Taps', which – while not confirmed – appears to be the in-game currency.
If this datamine is legitimate, it means that you could possibly purchase Taps – since there are microtransactions – which you could then exchange for Swag Bags, giving you randomly generated cosmetics. In other words, if this is true, Skate will have loot boxes. This is despite Full Circle general manager, Dan McCulloch specifically mentioning that the game will not include loot boxes – not just by mentioning it in passing, but with a graphic too.
However, it must be considered that Skate is yet to launch, and while the dataminer may have found files pertaining to loot boxes, they may not make their way into the final version of the game.
"We knew that to support a never ending, ever evolving, free-to-play world of Skate, we'd have to look into different models for the game itself," McCulloch said in the showcase video. Which means there will be microtransactions, and we know this is a sensitive subject. That's why when we decided to explore this model, we made some hard ground rules to follow."
If you skip ahead to 7:33, McCulloch goes on to say that these ground rules meant no pay-to-win, no map areas locked behind paywalls, no paid loot boxes, and no paid gameplay advantages.
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