EA and Full Circle – the developer behind the new early access Skate game (skate.) – don’t have a problem with modders and “creativity from players,” but they’re drawing the line with mods that aim to unlock paid microtransactions and unreleased content.
This comes just days after modding platform ReSkate blew up big time, reaching 350,000 downloads in mere hours. ReSkate essentially lets players experience the skating sim revival completely offline, unlike the online-only base game, with custom maps and cosmetics and servers.
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“Like many of you, we’ve been following the launch of numerous mods for our game. Skateboarding in general is built on community and creative expression, and we support that. We love seeing your passion for pushing the limits of San Vansterdam in different ways. That’s why we built our new skateboarding sandbox in San Vansterdam to begin with, to give you, the players, the tools you need to have fun and create amazing content,” a developer statement posted to Reddit and other online forums said.
“To be completely clear, we are not against creativity from players or stopping that from happening. Where we have to draw the line is when mods or other tools bypass our systems to unlock paid cosmetics, release gated/unreleased content, or profit from these unauthorized assets. That rips off the artists, skate brands, and creators, as well as our own development team here at Full Circle, who work hard to bring skate culture into our game,” the studio continued, before promising deeper community creation tools in the future.
Seems like Full Circle aren’t taking action against ReSkate or any modders who are making their own fun stuff, for now, though the statement does seem like a warning of sorts to anyone trying to democratise the game’s live service economy.
Speaking to PC Gamer, the coders responsible for ReSkate said they weren’t trying to “replace the live game” and understood Full Circle needs “to make money somehow to be able to keep developing the game.” ReSkate’s official channels also don’t allow mods that freely give access to premium cosmetics from the main game.
Full Circle ran into a bit of trouble earlier this year when the developer laid off an unspecified number of staff. Pro skaters have since slapped the sim with a Mixed Steam rating, with most complaints citing overbearing microtransactions and far too much paywalled content. Eurogamer’s early access review liked Skate’s – excuse me, skate.’s – initial version well enough.