Honestly, the music at launch doesn’t feel like a skating soundtrack. There’s some great alternative music in bursts, but then there are a whole host of songs that are completely removed from any observable form of skate culture. The base track list comes across as one mandated to blend with EA Sports titles and the publisher’s wider musical footprint.
These are the worst offenders in my book:
- SAINt JHN - Circles
- Bonobo - Expander
- Sawyer Hill - High On My Lows
- Piers James - K.K.O.
- Quinn XCII - Hold My Hand, Worry Less
- Panda Bear - Praise
- 2hollis - destroy me
- B Wise - THREE65
- BIG NO!SE ft. Julisa - Shinin’
- Duskee & Disrupta - Sweet Vanilla
- Ocean Wisdom ft. Dizzee Rascal - Revvin’
- ZEP - Trying To Say Something
What these tracks show more than anything else is a confused sense of who the game’s target audience is and what they want. Instead of building a focused title with its own sense of cool, EA have hedged their bets and tried to include music that will appeal to the always online contingent of Gen Z, or the moving target of whatever is considered mainstream and popular. The risk of this is threefold:
- your title loses counter-culture credibility
- you alienate your core support
- your title looks dated when musical trends shift, instead of timeless
Ultimately, the decisions made in the soundtrack and symptomatic of the game’s confused direction and the way it has leaned heavily into aesthetics, tone, and gameplay that do not meet fan expectations. That’s a major reputational risk for the title and the publisher.
