Which is to say, they either got sick of hearing people ask "when is the next skate. coming"?, or they saw the ground swell of hype building around the recently-revealed Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 and 2 and thought "I can do that".

And while it's awesome to know we'll have both of the top-tier skating games out in the wild up against each other in some capacity once again, it's important to point out that Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 and 2 is out this year, while EA simply revealed that a new skate had moved from angry inbox demands and a lonely, empty mind map on an aging whiteboard scarred with permanent marker, to a signed document saying "go with it".

Skate is back! In response to the voices of incredibly passionate fans for nearly a decade, Chief Studios Officer, Laura Miele, left one last surprise for players. Cuz Parry and Deran Chung, the game’s Game Director and Creative Director respectively, shared that while this is just the beginning and there is a long way to go, work on the next evolution in the Skate franchise has begun.

With the Tokyo Summer Olympics set to feature skateboarding as a proper event, it's safe to say action sports is primed for a new revival in the mainstream mind, and a boost into such a world can only be boosted by the existence of franchises like these, as well as passion projects-turned-tope-tier in their own right, like Skater XL.

We'll have more as soon as EA drops in with new information on the next skate entry in the beloved series.