Skate or Die (Xbox, Cancelled)

Skate or Die
Developed by Criterion Studios
Published by Electronic Arts
Planned for Xbox/PS2
Announced 2002
Cancelled 2003

Skate or Die was a skateboarding game, originally developed by Electronic Arts and released for the Commodore 64 back in 1987. In 1988, the game was ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System and the following year was released onto the Amstrad CPC, Spectrum and PC formats. I've heard quite a few of the younger folks trash the Skate or Die series, but this game was quite a big deal back in the day. At least in my household, this was one of the few NES carts we had so it got a lot of play and I have nothing but fond memories of the game. The series would get a few sequels in the following years with the final game in the franchise released for the Game Boy in 1991.

In 2002, the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series was still going strong for Activision and Electronic Arts wanted something to compete with that series. They commissioned developer Criterion Games to develop a new Skate or Die game, set to be released for the Xbox and PlayStation 2. Criterion Games was mostly known for the Burnout games, but they had developed a few hover-board games with TrickStyle for the Dreamcast and AirBlade for the PS2, so developing a skateboarding game wasn't out of the question for these guys.

Criterion had proposed some cool ideas for the game, one of which was to allow the player to hop off the board and walk around on foot. There were going to be shops where you could purchase new boards/equipment and NPCs that you could interact with. This was all well before the Tony Hawk series was doing any of this, so Skate or Die had some very unique concepts for the time. As ambitious as all this was, Electronic Arts wanted even more from the game., requesting that Criterion create a full-blown open world title that could compete with the Grand Theft Auto series. Criterion Games knew EA was asking for too much out of the project and eventually quit. There were also rumors that EA considered trying to make this a Jackass or Dogtown and Z-Boys tie-in.

As you would expect, EA was not happy with Criterion walking out on the project. It looked bad for Criterion and a developer mentioned in an interview that the Need for Speed team told the guys they couldn't work with or talk to them anymore. Criterion and EA eventually worked things out and before long Criterion would go back to work on their Burnout series, with Burnout 3: Takedown coming out for Xbox and PlayStation 2 in 2004. It's great to see that this wasn't the end of the line for Criterion Games, but one can't help but wonder what could have been if Skate or Die made it to store shelves. A lone screenshot has surfaced which came from a UK-based video games magazine by the name of GamesTM, which ran a preview for Skate or Die in issue 100.

Related Links:
Skate or Die Reboot - Unseen64
Criterion's Lost Skate or Die Sequel - Game Informer
Skate or Die! - Wikipedia
Skate or Die Game Franchise - GameFAQs