Fans of extreme sports games have a lot to anticipate after Activision's Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 remaster and EA's Skate 4 were both announced this year. However, Easy Day Studios is also looking to capitalize with the official release of its early access title Skater XL on PC and most major consoles at the end of the month. Leading into that July 28 release, the developer has revealed another new map today via the PlayStation Blog.
The Big Ramp is a "colossal desert structure" in California described as a "plywood paradise" by Easy Day Studios Director of Marketing Jeff Goforth, who said the core mission with Skater XL is to make skateboarding in all forms as accessible as possible. Much of the team's outward development has been focused on street skating as seen through other Skater XL levels like Easy Day High School, but in the background they have been "refining the transition skating experience."
Goforth said street skating gets the most attention in modern skateboarding culture, but The Big Ramp is designed with multiple sections such as vertical ramps, small quarterpipes, hips and tabletops to emulate historical structures "that broke the barriers of what is possible on a skateboard." Between The Big Ramp's exaggerated focus on technical skating, more realistic locales, and three community-created maps in Skater XL, there should be something to keep all kinds of players happy.
Originally, Easy Day Studios was aiming for a July 7 release on all platforms but Nintendo Switch. However, last month Skater XL had to be delayed to late July due to "things out of our control," more than likely a result of complications working from home after the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. An official release date for Switch has not yet been confirmed.
This skateboarding game is not the only title which has been affected by the ongoing pandemic. According to a recent survey of 2,500 game developers put out by the Game Developers Conference ahead of its digital-only conventions next month, one third of developers say they have faced COVID-19 delays.
Luckily, fans of Easy Day Studios' early access title or those who are interested in seeing it fully released only have to wait about a week. With Skater XL beating Activision and EA to the punch, and hosting a variety of maps like The Big Ramp, it will be interesting to see how the competition stacks up.
Skater XL is officially launching July 28 for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. A Switch port is in development.
Source: PlayStation Blog