MAG dev hits back at doom merchants

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 15 November, 2010

"Among the most played online PS3 games."

Zipper Interactive has insisted large scale first-person shooter MAG is one of the most played online PlayStation 3 games amid accusations that hardly anyone's playing it.

A user on the game's official forum (thanks, VG247), dvdpfstr, said: "Look at the numbers of players on MAG for the last week. It would seem to me the writing is on the wall. Socom Confrontation has more players still and that is a game that people have complained about incessantly since its release. It really is sad too, MAG had so much potential only to get worse the longer it was out."

The comment sparked a response from senior community manager Jeremy Dunham, who hit back at dvdpfstr's accusation.

"This is incorrect," he said. "MAG has more concurrent players than SOCOM Confrontation worldwide on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. This has been true for every month since MAG's release on January 26.

"Obviously we don't hit the same numbers we had in our first few months in terms of concurrent and daily users, but we're still amongst the most played online PS3 games out there."

Eurogamer reviewed MAG in January, awarding the ambitious shooter 7/10.

Zipper's supported the game since then with a raft of downloadable content. Last month a massive patch, called MAG 2.0, was released.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (34) Latest comment 2 years ago

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  • RodHull #1 2 years ago

    Wow! The most played online ps3 game. Considering there's naff all people playing whenever I try, it's competitors must be doing really badly.

  • HisDudness #2 2 years ago

    The new DLC is pretty sweet. I've had no problem rolling into game after game since its release, with the number of players often eclipsing the other vanilla game types. It's a great game that gets blasted by people who went in expecting the wrong thing. Lucky for those people there are a rash of alternatives for them to defer to.

    For those that are interested in a tactical team-based (and yes massive) modern military shooter, look no further as this is basically your only option on consoles. And it's a damn fine option. Also the Move implementation is top notch.

  • GamesConnoisseur #3 2 years ago

    Mmmm I actually haven't considered the game as assumed to be underpopulated all the times, but I m quite willing to take the plunge if Move feature is an advantage over the pad? Can anyone confirms that it's at least an advert for Move with shooter game?

  • BraveArse #4 2 years ago

    MAGs biggest attraction was its's biggest problem imo. The insistence on voice chat being enabled and reliance on headsets which was necessary for it to work at it's best was also highly off-putting for a lot of folk, including me. I loved MAG in the beginning but it was naive of Zipper to expect it to get filled with anything other than screaming, abusive, sociopaths, and Americans constantly complaining that they don't understand people with different accents or speaking a different language. There has to be a better solution to comms on a large scale and grouping with friends than the pretty uncompromising one Zipper came up with.

  • wayneh #5 2 years ago

    I've never had a problem getting a game on MAG still remains my online shooter of choice far better than COD

  • mrvinny000 #6 2 years ago

    The game never really got in my good books and has barely improved since the beta . Its an ok shooter but the maps are poor and the dlc has less than 300 people a night on it .
    The more players than Socom statement is a lame dig at Slant 6 who ruined what should of been a great game.
    MAG for me was a technical trial to see what could be done through PSN and i think more things will come in the not so distant future that replicate the mmo shooter genre like this.
    DC Universe is the next big MMO to come for psn but i fear this will like APB be an epic fail.

  • Noble6 #7 2 years ago

    Would love to know the numbers, the fps genre is flaming with competition.

  • jonsaan #8 2 years ago

    The sequel 'Frantic Action Game' is coming to the States soon.

  • GamesConnoisseur #9 2 years ago

    TheDellBingo: Great thanks for that and I m now on the lookout for the game.

    Sure COD will always attracts the greatest number of online players, but games that tries to be a bit different is worth trying and people may tires of the same COD games however excellent they are.

  • Lunastra78 #10 2 years ago

    MAG is a good game but the amount of people needed for a full domination server is a bit ambitious to say the least. Besides it's competing against the likes of CoD and Bad Company that already had a dedicated fanbase.

    Personally I think the game would have been far more successful if it was a free for PSN+ subscribers. That would bring in a lot of more gamers and also sell subscriptions.

  • suhawk75 #11 2 years ago

    Hang on Eurogamer publish an article about someone on an online forum expressing an opinion? Really?

    Also Online FPS numbers down in the week that a new COD game is released shock.

    It's never much of a problem finding a game. Numbers are well down from it's release in March obviously but I've sunk 150 hrs into MAG and I've never played a FPS as rewarding. Sure you need a good team (for the the loner type I suspect it's a barely average experience) but get a few friends with mics together and it's briliant.

    @ BraveArse - I've heard loads of swearing on MAG. It's mostly from me though ;)

    You don't need a mic to work as a team though since the squad commander can set FRAGO and waypoints to give you a fairly accurate idea of what is needed.

    Overall I'll take many many fond memories of MAG with me (and I'll buy MAG II on day one).

  • JBlokeUK #12 2 years ago

    In my experience I agree with him. I play this 4-5 nights a week currently and there are ALWAYS games going, not only that they are largely populated. Never waited more than 10 minutes for a game of Domination to start.

    Great game, and Move works well too. Extra bonus for picking it up on the cheap too.

  • Mono_X #13 2 years ago

    I've played MAG for a few hours and found it a hugely frustrating game, perseverance meant it got a little better as I got better kit. But ultimately it's been flawed experience for me.
    Then my PS3 went YLOD and I refuse to pay Sony's extortionate refurb price. :/

  • Beano #14 2 years ago

    I love MAG and think it's one of the best online shooters at the moment - but I can't agree that it's one of the most played PS3 online shooters. Actually the number of players is so low now that waiting in the lobby is way too long.
    In the future they should finish the game before releasing it - I belive many tried the game in the beginning, experienced the flaws and never returned when it was later fixed and new gamemodes and maps came out. A shame!

  • markmitt #15 2 years ago

    It is a far more ambitious shooter than the likes of COD, MOH, etc, and for that I commend it. Plus it is good fun (when it runs ok). But I almost always get terrible lag on it, and that really detracts from the game for me. Hopefully for the sequel, this is something they will rectify...

  • BraveArse #16 2 years ago

    @suhawk75 I downed about 80 hours on it before I moved on ( well past my normal boredom at 35 hrs threshold ). I've been tempted to pick it up cheap again though. Has the screaming teen contingent moved on to CoD yet?

  • Beano #17 2 years ago

    @markmitt : Lag in MAG?

    MAG runs on dedicated servers + lines and I have never experienced any lag but the framerate in 256 player matches can stutter.
    Sure it's not your connection that's the cause of the problem?

  • Kremlik Verified Co-Founder, Crash To Desktop #18 2 years ago

    I'm glad MAG is doing so well TBH, in a gen of 'it's not X so I wont by it - X is better' in the FPS case it's COD atm, 'X' is NOT 'better' long term as the publishers know they can throw out anything, add a little hype, and it'll sell/review well because it's a 'known brand' they become complasent and the game's qualitly becomes 'samey'.

    It's not just COD I'm singling out here theres a lot of other titles out there 'top' of it's genere that have become less 'daring' compeared to it's roots, some have bouced back and delivered a refreshed title (not always requiring a 'reboot'), others continue to slide into the cashcow realm, which TBH is a bit saddering as gamers aren't gamers at times they are more trend followers wanting to be 'in' with everyone else, the decline in the industry isn't always because of bad games it's more to do with the fact the 'masses' have been trained to tunnelvision to one or two 'brands'.

    Thats why we need to follow the '2nd fiddle' games like MAG to 'reboot' players into remembering this isn't a 'one good game per genere' industry theres a lot of other good games out there besides 'the best' and hopfully the publishers realise they aren't actally 'the best' in qualitiy, just popular, and once players realise theres actally other good if not better quitaly titles out there the current 'popular' will be dropped quicker then a stone in water.

  • makeamazing #19 2 years ago

    I agree with what others have said, this would be a great addition as a free item on PS Plus.

  • Progguitarist #20 2 years ago

    Probably the most innovative and under-rated FPS around at the moment. The shooting mechanics aren't as polished as other but there's no other game that offers the same level of tactics/teamwork. I've ploughed about 180 hrs into it and still play regularly.

  • neems #21 2 years ago

    I rented this when it first came out, and I thought it was great - decent graphics, smooth gameplay, and the huge player counts and grand scale maps are really something from a technical standpoint. Sadly, I can't play FPS games with a controller, I just can't do it. If they released it on PC I would be all over it in an instant.

  • Cronan #22 2 years ago

    So, what are the actual numbers, or is that a journalistic bridge too far?

  • tiny_Eggy #23 2 years ago

    It's on the wrong platform. I'm sure it would be played a lot more on the PC.

  • Progguitarist #24 2 years ago

    145,000 weekly has been bandied about.

  • HisDudness #25 2 years ago

    @tiny_Eggy

    I can't really disagree with you there. I'm really happy it's on PS3, but you get the feeling that this would have been a huge hit with a more sophisticated crowd (*ahem* no offence to my fellow mouth-breathing console users). I've seen user reviews describe it as "the first PC shooter on consoles", for whatever that's worth.

  • 1Dgaf #26 2 years ago

    MAG was never policed or pitched properly. In a multiplayer game with multiple objectives and a clear chain of command, that chain of command needs to be enforced. If people don't lead, sitting silent on the mic, kick them. If people didn't follow orders, kick them.

    I'm positive there's a large enough group of gamers out there who'd want an experience of working in a structured, coordinated team. I think they would have paid an extra monthly sub, too if only a few pounds. There must be hundreds of thouands, if not millions, of gamers who are sick of racism, hatred, bigotry, cheaters and hackers. MAG was a platform that could have catered to them - why didn't it?

  • man.the.king #27 2 years ago

    @jonsaan

    "The sequel 'Frantic Action Game' is coming to the States soon."

    That particular game is already here - only it's not by Zipper Interactive.

  • markmitt #28 2 years ago

    @Beano...

    Trust me, it's lag alright. Dedicated servers or not, there is plenty of it. About 400 hours into it now, and in that time have seen some very strange things. And as the player counts have fallen drastically, regardless of what anyone else says, then Zipper had to rethink the server strategy. In the queues, the servers determine where the most players are from and chooses the "appropriate" server. Which, a lot of the time in my experience, happens to be asian servers. Domination does tend to be the biggest culprit, but it's not solely there. As for my connection? Ping responses of 25ms to UK based servers aren't too bad for a 5.5 mb connection (all I can get in my non-cabled area)

  • suhawk75 #29 2 years ago

    @BraveArse - it's a pretty hardcore community now. Not many teenagers playing anymore in my experience and the few that do still play are pretty decent chaps.

    Edited by suhawk75 at 15/11/10 @ 23:19

  • layleeloo #30 2 years ago

    I Liked Mag when I had it pre 2.0 days. Seems a good one to re buy now with the added value of 2.0 and the even more added value of a lot if the gayboy pre teen yanks will be beating their tally wackers at bore ops. Sorry, black ops.

  • Arwin #31 2 years ago

    @neems: that's why it now supports the Move controller. ;)

  • WangKZ3 #32 2 years ago

    Thanks Zipper for supporting MOVE!! I’m playing with move and feels great....
    The first 2 weeks was a nightmare and I got owned all the time...but now I'm doing quite good ...believe me, it's worth the try!



  • WangKZ3 #33 2 years ago

    In domination mode (256 players) and after the first objectives are done --> the map starts to close-up and it's simply amazing!!! = bunch of friends and foes everywhere and lots of stuff going on....the sense of war is HUGE......never felt like this with other games (even with BF2 or BF2142)......for those who talk about and didn't played it, just try it out and have a blast!!!

  • WangKZ3 #34 2 years ago

    @neems

    did you try playing with MOVE?? ....I'm very bad with controller too, so after they started supporting move I gave it a try and after a couple of weeks (bad weeks!) I'm quite happy and will never go back to controller anymore... even better tan mouse/keyboard on PC because the feeling of pointing and shooting is much more real...(feels like a whole new better experience for FPS)....good luck!