The case of Skate 3

Skate 3 is a skateboarding sandbox game developed by EA Black Box and was published by Electronic Arts on May 11, 2010. It is the third game in the popular Skate series, which emerged in 2007 as a competitor to the dwindling hit franchiseTony Hawk’s Pro Skater. It was initially profiled as a more serious, almost simulator-like alternative tothe arcade play style of THPS, but during the years it has evolved into a more accessible and casual direction to accommodate all kinds of players.

Skate 3 is set in the fictional town of Port Carverton, a large area for free roaming and competing in various skateboarding challenges. The players take on a career mode centred on creating a successful skateboard label while unlocking new locations, challenges, boards, clothing, and other apparel. There is also a skate park creator to create your own stages, which can then be shared through the online functions ofSkate 3. Players can also create a team, play online alone or co-operatively, and shoot videos or take photos, both of which can be posted online – videos even straight to YouTube through the game menu.

Being a service, a console game is not limited simply to the act of playing:

the developer has space ‘around the game’ — the in-game menu, the digital store front — to provide players with additional services such as recommendations. Like Toivonen and Sotamaa note, unlike on the fragmented PC side, the console marketplaces are easily accessible and difficult to miss (2010, 27). In Skate 3, game add-ons can be browsed through the in-game menu, turning the game itself into a distribution channel. The first thing to come up on the screen when the game is turned on is the ‘skate.Feed’ news feed, where, among other information, new DLC packs are advertised. This can also be seen as turning the game into an internal and controlled market for oneself.

The DLC packs

Since the release of the game in May 2010, nine DLC packs have been released forSkate 3:

Time Is Money Pack (released May 14, 2010) – Immediately unlocks all locations, skaters, equipment, and ‘Skate.Park’ objects that otherwise could be earned by playing through the career and online modes. (6,45€) Skate Share Pack (released May 14, 2010) – Enables the ability to share skate creations (videos, photos, parks) as well as access to ‘Skate.Reel’

footage and custom ‘Skate.Parks’ created by the Skate community.

Available for free as a one-time-use voucher code for players who buy a new/sealed copy of the game. (8,95€)

Filmer Pack (released May 14, 2010) – Gives the player more options to control the camera during video editing and adds the option of uploading videos in high resolution. (Unavailable in PSN Store as of March 2011) Maloof Money Cup 2010 NYC Pack (released June 12, 2010) – A re-creation of the custom street park built for the 2010 Maloof Cup, a real life skateboarding prize contest. (3,95€)

Black Box Distribution Skate Park (released June 22, 2010) –A small extra skate park originally available for free for players who pre-ordered the game and now available in the online store as paid content. (2,95€)

Danny Way's Hawaiian Dream (released July 6, 2010) – A large skate park with a lot of new skate ramps and other features. New equipment and a new Danny Way avatar. (6,45€)

After Dark Pack (released July 27, 2010) – Two new night-time areas and subsequently the ability to skate at night. Available free-of-charge, but only for players who activate the ‘Skate Share Pack’ one-time voucher code included in a new game box.

Skate.Create Upgrade Pack (released August 17, 2010) – Two new

‘skate.Park’ lots to build in, and a host of new building pieces for skatepark creation, two old characters from Skate 2, new Create-a-Character items, and new features to the replay editor as well as new Miracle Whip sponsor themed items unlocked with a cheat code. (6,45€) San Van Party Pack (released September 21, 2010) – Party Play game mode, party style challenges, a large part of the Urban Rez area from the original Skate game, one new skatepark, a large new skate.Park lot to build in, and new skate.Park pieces. (6,45€)

The skateboarding theme emerges as a perfect opportunity to update the game regularly. There are several categories to update, from equipment to skaters and environments. The skate culture is happening right now, meaning whatever is going on in the real world of skating — such as the actual Maloof Money Cup — can be imported quickly to the game and made to mirror actual events. The skateboard culture is known for always seeking new areas to appropriate for their own uses. In a way, this act of repurposing is remediated in Skate 3 through the regular introduction of new skate arenas in the DLC packs.

The skateboard culture is, and has been, a very trendy segment of the entertainment industry. This, combined with the fact that the skate culture is certainly no stranger to advertisers, presents ample opportunities for marketing deals – something DLC is perfectly suited for. Lastly,Skate 3

features an editor mode, which can be updated through DLC, a strategy poignantly exemplified by games likeLittleBigPlanet.

Electronic Arts

Over the past decade, the digital games industry has seen extensive conglomeration, consolidation, and vertical integration. (Kerr 2006a, 77) Industry giants Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft have outsourced large parts of their production from developed countries to places like Mexico and Brazil

“in an attempt to exploit cheaper labour, shorter distances to major markets, and just-in-time inventory management structures” (Herz 1997, 113-117; Kline et al. 2003, 205-209; in Kerr 2006a, 77). In the light of these efforts, it is easy to see why the games industry is gradually moving towards distributing software digitally. In particular, one of the two largest publishers in the world, Electronic Arts, has been experimenting with various new strategies concerning digital distribution and downloadable content.

Besides being a publisher, EA develops games both in-house and through the development studios it acquires. It has further consolidated its operations by buying physical distributing channels and establishing online storefronts for digital distribution (Dyer-Witheford & De Peuter 2008).

Perhaps a downfall due to its massive size, the company has been the target of many accusations over the years. During the 2003 “EA Spouse”

incident, a wife of an EA worker brought to light how the company was exploiting its work force to exhaustion without any compensation (ibid.).

Known for its ubiquitous sports franchises, EA has also been criticised for shamelessly re-releasing its sports games every year with only one or two essential improvements.

During the last couple of years, EA has seemingly both revised its old strategy and shifted its business to second gear, however. The misconduct with work force abuse has allegedly been taken care of, and the company has clearly started to fund more experimental projects, buying successful and innovative development studios such as BioWare. EA has persistently entered the Facebook gaming scene and it is also one of the most diligent users of DLC, experimenting a lot with different tactics and building cross-promotion between its games. A lot of the online functionality in its games has been tied under an ‘EA Account’, and now the company plans to create persistent player profiles that work in all of its games regardless of genre and platform (Nelson 2011), perhaps drawing comparisons to how the Facebook gaming giant Zynga operates in that eco-system.

Next we turn to examining the specific practices of how DLC is used for further franchising and how the evolving service paradigm is changing the development and marketing of games.