Skate 4 actually, finally confirmed during EA Play

Electronic Arts closed out this year's EA Play event with a shock announcement no one quite saw coming, the long-awaited sequel Skate 4. No, this isn't just a meme, this is real life. Sometimes we can have nice things. More than a decade after Skate 3 came to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, a new installment in the franchise is finally in development.

They didn't show any footage, a trailer, or even a logo. Instead, in a classic "one more thing" moment that captured the magic of E3 from the Before Times, the franchise's creative director Cuz Perry appeared at the tail end of the presentation to say the magic words fans of the skateboarding game have longed to hear for more than a decade: "We're back! It's happening!"

Deran Chung, the game's director, said, "We've been waiting years, honestly, to make the right game. It is really early..."

"We've got a long way to go," Perry added. "But we're stoked."

"We cannot believe you commented this into existence," Perry said, beaming with evident with happiness. "Skate forever!"

Perry and Chung didn't elaborate on platforms, nor did they even so much as gesture toward a possible release window. However, it's fair to assume that Skate 4 is resolutely a next-gen game, and is probably a couple years away from release. We'd venture to guess it's in very early development for PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC. (We're less sure about Switch, as it's hard to imagine how next-gen games a couple years down the line will convert to Nintendo's handy hybrid.)

Social media erupted in response to the surprise announcement, with fans worldwide expressing their absolute delight at the news. Skate 3, the most recent installment of the beloved skateboarding franchise, came out all the way back in May 2010. For gamers who grew up on the series, this is a long-held wish finally coming true.

It's very possible we owe this unexpected 2020 surprise to the efforts of one devoted fan, who wasn't afraid to dabble with the occult to make the impossible happen, at last.

Here's what EA had to say about the news in a press release immediately following the announcement:

"Skate is back! In response to the voices of incredibly passionate fans for nearly a decade, Chief Studios Officer, Laura Miele, left one last surprise for players. Cuz Parry and Deran Chung, the game’s Game Director and Creative Director respectively, shared that while this is just the beginning and there is a long way to go, work on the next evolution in the Skate franchise has begun."

2010's Skate 3 has long been a favorite of Let's Play streamers on YouTube and Twitch, owing to the game's ridiculous ragdoll physics giving rise to some truly spectacular and ridiculous crashes. In its heyday, skateboarding fans praised the game's open-world creativity, comparing it favorably to the incremental yearly upgrades typical of the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series.