Skate players are accusing EA and developer Full Circle of walking back an earlier promise that the game’s map expansions would never be paywalled. The dispute is now centered on Season 3’s headline destination, which introduces a tiered entry system that many vocal Skate players say crosses a line for the free-to-play game.
Skate launched in early access on PC and consoles in September 2025. Since then, the game has delivered two quarterly seasons. Season 2, dubbed “Future Radical,” kicked off on December 2 and is set to run until March 3, with Season 3 planned to follow on March 10. Full Circle has recently started sharing first the concrete details about the upcoming content drop, stirring some controversy in the process.
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Fans Criticize Skate Over Isle of Grom Paywall
As some vocal players have been noting on social media since February 19, the initial pitch for Skate‘s seasonal model included a straightforward promise that no maps added to the game post-release would be locked behind a paywall. However, Full Circle has now decided to reverse course, at least partially: Season 3 is set to introduce Isle of Grom, an expanded version of the game’s tutorial island with varying, date-dependent availability. Initially, only those who purchase the next iteration of skate.Pass Premium will be able to access the area every day. Although the limited-access period is intended to be temporary, the mere prospect of Skate placing a map behind a paywall has already drawn criticism from players online.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
Easy (5)Medium (7)Hard (10)
Full Circle’s rollout effectively treats Isle of Grom as a rotating destination: from March 10 to April 14, unlimited access is reserved for skate.Pass Premium holders; from April 14 to May 5, the island opens to all players for a limited-time event; and from May 5 to June 2, Skate‘s F2P players can enter by spending 500 earnable Rip Chips on a 24-hour day pass. While the studio can argue this still leaves a non-paying route to the area, critics argue the structure effectively amounts to renting a map and sets an uncomfortable precedent for how future locations could be handled once the grand-opening window ends.
EA addressed the backlash by pointing to the realities of Skate‘s development model. “Yes, sometimes plans have to change,” the game’s official Twitter account posted on February 19, describing that as “part of the deal” when developing an early access title. The post generated more than 100,000 impressions within 24 hours but did little to calm criticism. Some players argued that Skate should not have promoted its “no paid maps” pledge so prominently, including in its FAQ and as a Discord sticker, if the policy was not set in stone. For those critics, the concern is less about Season 3 being experimental and more about altering a trust-sensitive promise about how Skate’s world would grow.
Skate Season 3 will span far more than just the Isle of Grom, with its other additions likely being much less controversial. Full Circle has teased additions aimed at expanding skate.Pass content, including more rewards based on real-world brands like Adidas, plus a variety of store changes and a new “Premium+” bundle. A separate update is expected to outline additional gameplay features, which are supposed to deliver everything “from darkslides to grittier streets.”
It remains unclear how the ongoing criticism over the Season 3 map access model may affect player engagement. SteamDB data shows the game is currently peaking at about 2,000 concurrent users on Valve’s platform, which is a 98% decrease compared to Skate‘s Steam player base in September 2025. Full Circle previously indicated that Skate will remain in early access for at least one year. However, the studio has not committed to a concrete 1.0 launch timeline.
- Released
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September 16, 2025
- ESRB
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Teen / Crude Humor, Lyrics, Mild Violence, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact
- Developer(s)
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Full Circle
- Engine
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Frostbite
