Earlier this yr, Digital Arts (EA) and Unusual Inventive Studio constructed a skate park in Mexico Metropolis and invited 100 skaters to carry out tips for a business. The forged stored skating lengthy after the cameras stopped rolling, and by the tip, a number of skaters had grow to be an actual crew.
“It become a giant celebration,” Unusual artistic Sammy Gold recalled.
That group vibe is supposed to reflect the digital expertise of EA’s Skate, which is launching the primary new version of the sport in 15 years. Unusual created the marketing campaign introducing the subsequent chapter of Skate, paying homage to skate tradition and welcoming a brand new technology to hitch the sport.
The Skate reboot is certainly one of EA’s most anticipated current launches. Forward of the early entry launch at this time (Sept. 16), EA obtained a couple of million playtest sign-ups, the most important within the firm’s historical past.
After its preliminary 2007 launch, Skate “turned a cult traditional. We all know that comes with huge expectations,” stated Mark Renken, EA artistic director.
“Drop In,” the brand new model platform, welcomes viewers into the sport’s fictional metropolis of San Vansterdam, a skateboarding vacation spot comprising 4 distinct neighborhoods, every with its personal distinctive ambiance and challenges.
“It’s a world open for interpretation and rooted in group,” Renken stated. “We needed to offer gamers a way of possession, broadening the aperture of skateboarding.”
Unusual tried to recreate San Vansterdam in actual life. The advert’s forged are all actual skaters, with expertise together with Yurin Fuji, Jerry Hsu, Ishod Wair, David Gravette, Kiki Kakitani, Sean Malto, Breana Geering, Atiba Jefferson, Alfie Mills, Brayan Coria, and Jackie Michel.
The advert is an homage to traditional skate movies, depicting the world via the lens of a skater. It’s a “feel-good piece” that matches the sport’s open and community-driven vibe, stated Unusual co-founder Nils Leonard.
The marketing campaign will span paid social, streaming TV, gaming consoles, and influencers. It continues Unusual’s long-standing artistic partnership with EA, after its 2023 rebrand of EA FC.
Making a secondary place
The primary model of Skate “got here when skate tradition was at its peak” within the early 2000s, Renken stated. Whereas different skateboarding video video games of the period had been “arcadey,” Skate provided a extra grounded expertise that was true to the tradition, he added.
As with earlier variations, the brand new Skate goals to defy stereotypes in regards to the sport’s individuals, stated Leonard.
“Individuals attempt to paint skate as punk, prefer it’s this harmful pressure. It’s virtually the other, and it’s innately artistic,” Leonard stated. “It’s not nearly skating, it’s about hanging and the conversations you’ve and the best way you see the world. This sport nails that.”
As EA tries to fulfill the expectations of passionate followers, it additionally desires to entice new audiences who might really feel “this world doesn’t have precisely what we want always,” Renken stated. Skate is positioned because the antithesis of “overly aggressive [gaming] experiences,” he added.
“We expect that [Skate] will be that secondary place for folks simply to hang around, chill out, and be with their pals,” Renken stated. “Skateboarding and this sport usually are not about the way you escape the world; they’re about the way you create it for your self.”
