Fans of EA's skateboarding sim series Skate have been asking the publisher to make a new game for years. Even Grammy-award nominated musician Tyler, The Creator has asked EA to make Skate 4. When commenting on the matter previously, the official line from EA has been that the game is not in the works, but a new development has given fans a reason to believe that Skate 4 is in the works.

Skate 3 is currently available through Xbox backward compatibility and players who are enjoying this game have noticed that the game's servers have come back online after several years of being down. As explained in a video below by avid Skate fan X7 Albert, the game's back-end servers are now up and running, offering access to community created content such as community skate parks, videos and the import a skater feature. Just like when the game first launched, players are able to download content to their version of Skate 3, also rating the content made available by other players.

While this is great news for those looking to add more content to their copy of Skate 3, it has also led to renewed speculation that EA is about to announce Skate 4. By bringing the servers back online, it will give Skate 3 players even more to do while they wait for Skate 4 to be released. One possibility is that EA will allow Skate 3 players to upload content to the servers which can then be imported or used in some way in Skate 4.

It's little surprise that fans are so quick to believe that everything related to the franchise is somehow EA's way of teasing Skate 4. There has been growing discussion about a new game in the Skate series recently, with what appeared to be a Skate 4 promo image leaking online.

Moreover, the crowdfunding success of indie skateboarding sim Session also had fans eager to get their hands on a worthy successor to Skate 3. Whether that came through an independent developer with a small budget and a vision or the big budget development teams at EA, fans wanted to play a thrilling skate sim.

After EA's E3 2017 press conference came with no announcement of the game, fans took to social media to lambast the publisher for not announcing Skate 4. While the company is unlikely to develop an entire game solely based on some angry tweets, it did underscore fans' interest in the franchise. So, will EA make it up to them by announcing a new Skate during its E3 2018 press conference instead? Only time will tell.