Skate Leak Suggests Game Will Have Loot Boxes Known as "Swag Bags"

Skate will seemingly have some kind of loot boxes, much to the dismay of some fans. This news comes following a recent update that confirmed that Skate will be a free-to-play, live service game. This led to some divisive reactions as live service games can be either really good or total disasters. EA has also struggled in the live service market as games like Battlefield 2042 have been released as broken messes that require the post-launch content to be delayed for months so the game can be fixed. Ideally, if the game releases in good condition and has a solid amount of starting content, it can work... but some are already having concerns with Skate.

According to Reddit user PatFennis, a playtest build of Skate features "swag bags", which sound an awful lot like loot boxes. In a menu, the game notes that players will earn "Taps" by exploring Fun City and playing the game, which can then be exchanged for "product boxes". These boxes will then spit out a random unlockable item, essentially making it a loot box. Given this is Skate and not a shooter or card game, it's likely this is just for cosmetic items and there's nothing in here that will give you a big one up on anyone. The team already confirmed there will be no "paid" loot boxes or pay to win features. So, while there may be loot boxes, it seems like the team has found a way to carefully implement them as a means of progression rather than paying gobs of money for new stuff.

So… remember when they said ‘No purchasable loot boxes’? from Skate4

It's not clear how EA plans to monetize this game yet, but it's possible there could be some kind of battle pass for players to purchase. Almost all free to play games these days have some kind of battle pass so that publishers can monetize the game without restricting the overall gameplay experience too much for fans. As for how that will look remains to be seen, though.

Are you looking forward to Skate? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @Cade_Onder.