Lay-offs at SOCOM/MAG studio

By Fred Dutton Published 19 May, 2011

33 staff reported redundant at Zipper.

SOCOM developer Zipper Interactive has suffered a round of job cuts, owner Sony has confirmed.

A spokesperson for Sony told Kotaku that it was "normal business practice and a result of cutting back on production resources after the launch of two major franchises."

The number of redundancies wasn't specified but "multiple tipsters" put the figure at 33, with reports on NeoGAF suggesting senior staff were among those given their marching orders.

SOCOM 4 launched on PlayStation 3 last month, a few days before the PlayStation Network outage kicked off. It scored a so-so 6/10 from Eurogamer's Steve Hill and failed to crack either the US or UK top 10 during its first weeks on release.

Zipper's last game but one, ambitious multiplayer shooter MAG, arrived back in January 2010.

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About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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Comments (12) Latest comment 1 year ago

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  • jefranklin18 #1 1 year ago

    that sucks. Hope those affected find alternative work soon and (from a selfish point of view) MAG development does not tail off

  • Jolly_Armadillo #2 1 year ago

    Played the beta on PS+, didn't really convince me it was worth a purchase.

    MAG so much better than SOCOM 4

  • Teamallstar #3 1 year ago

    Sony defence force.... ASSEMBLE!!!!!

  • curryking3 #4 1 year ago

    I'm still wondering what happened to SOCOM. I haven't kept up with the details though.

    I loved the PS2 SOCOM's. Did they not feel the same with the PS3 one? I thought the PS2 games had a perfectly balanced formula of simulation and fun.

  • jonbwfc #5 1 year ago

    " I thought the PS2 games had a perfectly balanced formula of simulation and fun."
    Fair enough like but i think you were in the significant minority, at least in the EU. They were patently trying for a more 'mass market' appeal with SOCOM 4. That was kind of futile when you put your game out the same day as Mortal Kombat and Portal 2 though. And then have your game's major feature disabled for a month by circumstances out of your control...

    Sucks for the people let go mind. However I wouldn't read too much into it - there's nothing apparently close to release after SOCOM 4 for Zipper, so it's possible the people they've let go were genuinely redundant - not needed and would have no work to do for some months. It doesn't seem at all uncommon for this kind of thing to happen in the games industry, especially for 'one trick studios' like Zipper that don't have overlapping projects to shift people between.

    Jon

  • Lunastra78 #6 1 year ago

    MAG 2 with plenty of vehicles and more balanced maps is the way to go. Let Socom rest in peace.

  • Murton #7 1 year ago

    About a month after the SOCOM release, and so soon after the PSN returns and proves that the latest patch is stable in the real world. Almost certainly QA staffers, making this just another of the cynical profit boosting layoffs that could have been avoided by proper project management ensuring that these people had something else to move onto once this game was completed.

    One of the many questionable practices I would like to see ended in this industry.

  • betrayerofhope #8 1 year ago

    its amazing that the bastard seth luisi has still got a job at sony. how does this hack manage to hold on to a job when everything from zipper has been shoddy this whole geenration.

    seth luisi embodies everything that is wrong with sony these days.

  • UkHardcore23 #9 1 year ago

    Sony should just close Zipper after how MAG and especially how Socom 4 turned out!

  • king26 #10 1 year ago

    MAG was amazing! When working as a team it is one of the most enjoyable fps this gen, great to see fps like MAG and BFBC2 not cloning the aging CoD formula

  • DRUNK3N-_-DRAGON #11 1 year ago

    well thank god for that because they have no talent and they were becoming a bit outdated just like there ps2 game engine

  • FeralYouth #12 1 year ago

    Putting a kick/vote out system in a game with the worst community in online gaming history probably wasn't the smartest of ideas.

    Horrible game, and most horrible people that play it.

    In fact it could be the best game in the world and I still wouldn't play it.