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   Believe it or not, ye Tony Hawk worshippers, Electronic Arts were among the very first to release a skateboarding game, back in 1987. It was called Skate or Die, and was soon to be followed by their better known Ski or Die sports classic. What's that got to do with today's announcement?... Absolutely nothing. But despite my strong anti-EA prejudices, I thought it was something worth pointing out, before any of you go screaming "Copycats!". And the reason you might want to do that, is because Electronic Arts have officially announced the first game in a new skating series, called Skate - clearly targeted at rivaling with Activision's Tony Hawk series.

   We also mentioned this title a couple of days ago, when writing about Tony Hawk's Project 8's loss of online play. At the time, only a PS3 version was revealed through a preview in the PSM magazine, but now it's official: Skate is headed for the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 next-gen consoles.

   According to EA, "Skate will deliver the feel of skating through innovative controls, authentic cameras and a fully reactive skateboarding city. The game features professional skaters such as Danny Way and PJ Ladd, as well as a reactive city and relevant in-game cameras that capture and deliver the most authentic skateboard videogame experience to date". They go on, claiming that "Skate's unique control scheme captures the true feel of skating versus the typical button mashing gameplay of past skating games. Featuring physics-driven animations, gamers will have a unique gaming experience every time they pick up the controller since no two tricks will ever be the same". Haven't I heard that somewhere before?

   At any rate, in the absence of any kind of media for the game, all that's left to say for now is that Skate is being developed by the Vancouver based EA Black Box studio. That's the same one working on Need for Speed Carbon, mind you.