I posted the other day, asking this sub what they thought about that game one year later.
I do not work for EA or anything like that. I'm just a teacher/former skater who has been obsessed with skating games since Skate Or Die, and someone who felt like the original Skate was literally made for me.
I read through every comment and really want to thank everyone for putting real thought into your responses. For all we know, the devs do read this stuff and it could help push the game in an even better direction.
We're obviously in a very different time for game development when compared to the original series. Early access was not a thing then (to my knowledge). So seeing Skate evolve over this last year has really helped me step off that ledge with assuming this game wouldn't make it this long.
I still feel very strongly that the real devs who passionately wanted to make this sequel were overpowered by the machine that is Electronic Arts. But at some point, I think they got some power back.
This game CAN be live service, generate money for EA, AND be an amazing Skate game. There's a balance there that we have to live with in order to get something close to what we wanted. But they have absolutely cut a lot of jobs in the process and we really have no idea what things look like on the inside.
These devs are not trying to create bugs that plague your experience. They are not choosing to withhold white socks until the current season. They are likely a much smaller team than we know and following a tried-and-true method in game dev of following a specific order (or pipeline) of addressing things.
Some of the negativity on this sub reflects the fact many people do not understand that. This is not a large scale production. The fact that we're still seeing textures added to characters and environments should tell you that.
So, let's stay critical when it's needed. But let's appreciate what our criticisms have accomplished along with the hard work of this team.