It’s been quite some time since EA spun up Full Circle to reboot the Skate franchise, a series that bailed out of the PS4 era entirely.

You may recall there was a time where the publisher had to reprint copies of Skate 3 such was its popularity, although the PS3’s lack of backwards compatibility largely left it out of this mini-renaissance.

The wait for the new Skate has been long, but that’s par for the course with game development these days. As you’ll recall, Full Circle has been making this with a community-first approach, releasing dozens upon dozens of playable builds, all leading towards an eventual free-to-play release.

And Early Access is at least almost imminent it seems.

Currently, the developer is taking sign-ups for one final playtest, with everyone who registers before 27th June expected to obtain entry. That test will get underway on 2nd July, and assuming all goes to plan, Early Access should deploy later this summer.

The game is getting really close to completion, then, it seems: the blog post about the upcoming test confirms there’ll be over 140 challenges dotted around the sandbox city of San Vansterdam, with complete character customisation and up to 150 players per server.

If you’ll recall, this game is going for an always online angle, where you jump into a lobby and can get creative alongside players from all over the world. Honestly, while we’re sure this live service approach will prove controversial among some, it sounds like the right approach for a series like Skate.

Hopefully we get more information about EA’s release plans once this latest playtest has gone live. But in the meantime, have any of you tried out this new iteration of Skate yet? What are your thoughts thus far? Let us know in the comments section below.