Originally posted June 17th 2025
Welcome back to The Grind! We’ve got Volume 3 comin’ in hot with a lot of info - especially about the upcoming Playtest update 0.27.0 dropping early July. Thanks to everyone for reading last month’s The Grind: Vol 2 and for submitting questions to the dev team via Discord. Don’t forget to join the official Discord to get your questions into the next edition!
We’ve got a big one today, so buckle up. Coming July 2, 2025, we’ll be dropping our BIGGEST playtest update.
First things first, as mentioned in The Grind: Vol 1, we will be sending out invites for 0.27 in waves starting soon to everyone who has signed up as a skate. Insider. However, we are closing skate. Insider registration on June 27, 2025. If you are signed up as an Insider before June 27 you will be invited in waves to the next playtest! If you haven’t signed up, do it now!
Don’t forget to ensure that your gaming account is the one you sign up with so you get the skate. Insider Rewards when we launch Early Access, and if you need help linking your console, check this FAQ.
WISHLISTS ARE LIVE!
We’re also excited to announce that you can now wishlist skate. on various platforms, including PlayStation, Xbox, Steam, and the Epic Game Store, right here. So if you want to throw a little support at skate.’s launch and get a reminder when Early Access goes live – head over and Wishlist skate. today!
Update 0.27.0
With update 0.27.0 we’re stoked to bring some major improvements to the playtest, much of which is based on your playtesting feedback. Find out more info below and we can’t wait for you to jump in.
But first, let’s just take a look at what 0.27 will look like. We think you’re going to notice a big difference.
We stole this collection of clips from our team playing an early build of .27 so you could get a sneak peek of what’s to come. This is pre-release, but enjoy!
What’s happening with the skate. Insider Playtest?
Update 0.27 is packed with upgrades, changes, fixes, and performance improvements that you’ve been highlighting in feedback and asking for in forums. We’re stoked to give you a preview of what’s coming (we’ll have full patch notes for our playtesters before the update drops). Thanks again to everyone in the community who has helped shape this updated build!
You Said: When are the visuals being updated? In Update 0.27, we have improved the visuals and you’ll notice the difference immediately (see the video above to get a sneak peek!) The city is more alive than it’s ever been!
You’ll find a ton more detail, like environmental content, signage, foliage, and graffiti as well as increased pedestrian and traffic activity, with more than 3X the number of pedestrians and around 5X the number of vehicles.
On the technical side, there is improved lighting and shadows, updated textures and effects, and other fine detail throughout San Vansterdam.
The UI has presentation improvements throughout the game, including visual updates with animations, video effects, and sound effects. Also, the Map has been improved to show other players.
We’ve also upped the max number of players in a server to 150 while improving performance across platforms. And we’re going to keep on working on this through live service.
You Said: We want more to do — give us more Missions and Challenges! More Missions, more Challenges. There is more to do in San Vansterdam, and we’ve also unlocked the Market Mile neighborhood!
We’ve streamlined and improved the opening/tutorial for the game to get you to San Vansterdam where we’ve added content, more than tripling the number of missions available in the game!
You said you wanted even more Challenges, and now there are more than 140 Challenges for you to conquer.
You Said: Improve the feel of Progression & Rewards: This captures a lot of your feedback, but to put it simply, we’ve overhauled progression and rewards.
As we mentioned above, the early tutorial experience has been streamlined to get into San Van much sooner.
Based on your feedback, we’ve also revamped how you progress by removing Collection Score as a gate for Challenge progression.
And when you move up, you want to really feel it, and that should be fun. So we now have bigger and better celebrations when you earn a reward, and we’ve revamped the earnable in-game Product Boxes - more boxes with better rewards. Let us know what you think when you get into 0.27.
You Said: We love our characters — give us more customization: skate. is all about you, an individual skateboarder finding and developing your own style, discovering your own spots, and expressing yourself, just like IRL. You’re not playing as anyone but who you want to be in the game. So we heard this loud and clear, and we agreed. In Update 0.27, we’ve made big changes, and you’ll find new and improved character options, including more options for your character’s overall appearance, as well as additional hairstyles, gestures, and emotes, with even more to come down the line.
We’ve made a lot more changes in Update 0.27, including updates to music and sound, the Replay Editor, general Quality of Life improvements, haptics and more.
None of this would be possible without all of our playtesters telling us what you love, what you want more of, and what you'd like improved. The entire team is listening, and we will continue to work with you to grow, evolve, and improve skate. when we launch Early Access later this year and throughout the Early Access period.
Check out these two side-by-side pics of the Canal and Financial Districts. With Update 0.27, we've improved lighting, added more textures, and there's more to come!
Let’s dive in to your questions. Keep them coming!
Your Q’s, our A’s.
When is skate. launching in Early Access?
Early Access is coming at the end of summer 2025 (Northern Hemisphere!). Yes, just months away now. And as a reminder, everyone who signs up as a skate. Insider by June 27 will get invited to playtest before Early Access launch.
What kind of visual updates and improvements can we expect for skate. for Early Access?
We talked in detail above, but you'll notice visual improvements across a wide range of areas in Update (0.27) on July 2. But know that San Van is always changing and skate. will never stop improving—its appearance will continuously evolve, unveiling new skateboarding spots and interesting details to discover. Early Access launch is just the beginning, and the city will keep evolving.
Will skate. support KBM (keyboard and mouse) controls?
Flick-It has always been the Skate franchise’s core control system: a reactive, dynamic, and immersive experience that has made Skate games feel amazing and unique. For now, we’re sticking with the controls that you have loved for decades, and honestly, KBM simply doesn’t create the same tangible skateboarding feeling. So for now, you’ll need to use a controller on PC. We’re not entirely writing off KBM – we’re always listening to feedback. So let us know your thoughts on our controller-only approach.
If I unlock something on my PC account, will I be able to use it on my Xbox/PS?
Absolutely! As long as your console account is linked to the PC account you play with, any cosmetics or SVB you purchase on one platform will be available on every platform linked to that account.
What modes will be available? S.K.A.T.E., Death Races, Hall of Meat, OTS?
We'll continue to expand our gameplay modes and tricks as Early Access progresses (and beyond), and we’ll share more details about this when we have them.
Are there achievements/trophies in-game to earn?
Yes, with update 0.27 we’ve added 1st party Achievements/Trophies support for Early Access. (They're not live in this build, but we know you Achievement/Trophy hunters were wondering about them.)
Is there fast travel in San Vansterdam?
Getting to where you want to throw down quickly is key, so we have the San Van Transit system (it’s a bus). You can take the bus to various locations in the city, but you’ll have to level up your neighborhoods to unlock all the stops. You can also teleport to friends or other skaters you want to spectate.
Don’t forget to drop your questions in the Q &A channel in The Grind category of the Discord, and we’ll pull some to answer for our next volume of The Grind. Join the community at https://discord.gg/skateEA.
See you in San Vansterdam,
The skate. Team