The good news first: EA’s classic Skate 2 is one of the over 70 games coming to the Xbox Series X/S’s backwards compatibility list. The bad news? It’s going to be missing its online multiplayer shortly afterwards, because EA is turning off the game’s servers next month.
In a kind of move that I don’t remember ever seeing before, the official Skate account managed to somehow do the “good news/bad news” thing in a single tweet + reply, posting this masterpiece earlier today:
Just look at those tweets. Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.
This isn’t a disaster; I’d guess most people probably played Skate in singleplayer, and that during a 2021 renaissance this pattern would likely continue. This decision wouldn’t have come out of thin air, after all, and is likely based on data that says “nobody is playing this game online, ever”. The game’s Create-a-Spot feature, for example, seems to have been dead since 2014, despite fans occasionally prodding EA about it.
But then that was before it got this new lease of life on Series X/S, and with interest in the series picking up again following the new game’s announcement, it might have been cool to at least give Skate 2 a few more months at least before pulling the plug. After all, it’s been nearly 13 years since the game was first released, what difference would another six months have made?
If you missed it, here’s the full list of games included in Microsoft’s backwards compatibility announcement earlier today:
- 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand
- Aces of the Galaxy
- Advent Rising
- Adventure Time: The Secret of the Nameless Kingdom
- Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? Make the Grade
- Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Burning Earth
- Bankshot Billiards 2
- Beautiful Katamari
- Binary Domain
- Black College Football Xperience: Doug Williams Ed
- Cloning Clyde
- Conan
- Darwinia+
- Dead or Alive Ultimate
- Dead or Alive 3
- Dead or Alive 4
- Death by Cube
- Disney Universe
- Disney’s Chicken Little
- Elements of Destruction
- F.E.A.R.
- F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin
- F.E.A.R. 3
- F.E.A.R. Files
- The First Templar
- Gladius
- Gunvalkyrie
- Islands of Wakfu
- Lego The Lord of the Rings
- Manhunt
- Max Payne
- Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
- Max Payne 3
- Mini Ninjas
- Mortal Kombat
- Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe
- MX vs. ATV Alive
- MX vs. ATV Untamed
- NIER
- Novadrome
- Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee
- Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad
- Otogi: Myth of Demons
- Otogi 2: Immortal Warriors
- The Outfit
- Outpost Kaloki X
- Quake Arena Arcade
- R.A.W. – Realms of Ancient War
- Red Dead Revolver
- Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City
- Ridge Racer 6
- Rio
- Risen
- Risen 2: Dark Waters
- Rock of Ages
- Sacred 2: Fallen Angel
- Scramble
- Screwjumper!
- Secret Weapons Over Normandy
- Skate 2
- SpongeBob SquarePants Underpants Slam!
- SpongeBob’s Truth or Square
- Star Wars Starfighter: Special Edition
- Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars
- Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
- Switchball
- Thrillville
- Thrillville: Off the Rails
- Time Pilot
- TimeSplitters 2
- TimeSplitters: Future Perfect
- Toy Story Mania!
- Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment
- Viva Piñata: Party Animals
- Warlords