‘Skate’ developer Full Circle announces layoffs ahead of new game release

Full Circle, the game studio behind the new iteration of Skaterecently announced a restructuring involving layoffs at its headquarters in Burnaby, British Columbia. Founded in 2021 as a subsidiary of Electronic Arts, Full Circle is just the latest in a string of AAA game studios to be hit by layoffs, with Ubisoft Toronto laying off 40 employees last week.

In its public announcement, titled “skate.’s Next Chapter,” the company lamented that those affected by the layoffs “are talented colleagues and friends who helped build the foundation of skateboarding,” while also shouting out the “tens of millions” of people who explored the Early Access version of skate. released last September. “To our departing teammates: thank you. Skateboarding exists because of your hard work and dedication to the craft.”

The original Skate the games were released in the late 2000s for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and marketed as more realistic skateboarding games than their rival. Tony Hawk’s professional skater series. Fans responded well to the tight controls, inventive urban settings and fun soundtrack, which won the first Skate game was awarded “Sports Game of the Year” at the 11th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards and resulted in commercial success, but the series was put on indefinite hiatus until the announcement of skate. (known among fans as Skate 4), which was to be a live game built around a sandbox-style multiplayer experience, a decision that did not sit well with many longtime fans of the series.

While the last Skate The game has yet to have a final release, the Early Access version has been available to fans for almost six months now and early reviews have been mixed. Reviewers highlighted the inclusion of microtransactions ($25 clothing for your digital character), the restriction of online-only play, and the homogenized character design, while others praised the free-to-play game’s accessibility.

It’s not yet clear how many employees have lost their jobs at Full Circle as the company has not been available, but parent company EA lost about 5% of its workforce in 2024 during its latest round of layoffs. As for the fate of skate. After these layoffs, much remains unknown and the game still does not have a definitive release date.