MAG set for spring 2009 News • News • Eurogamer.net

News PlayStation 3

PS3 exclusive with huge online battles.

Sony has told us to expect PS3 exclusive MAG, or Massive Action Game, in spring 2009.

"Coming in spring will be inFamous and MAG, and God of War [3] will be coming later in 2009," David Reeves told Eurogamer at an E3 event last night.

MAG was the big reveal at the Sony E3 press conference on Tuesday evening. SOCOM outfit Zipper Interactive is making it with a headline grabbing feature of 256-player online battles.

The idea is to break these up into smaller-squads of eight that bind together to make an army. This is supposed to promote the intimacy of squad-based games against the back drop of an enormous war.

You will be able to climb ranks and essentially level your soldier up online, and only those who have proven themselves will become squad and overall war leaders.

Spring is much earlier than we were expecting to see MAG, as we have heard nothing about it previously.

Head over to Eurogamer TV for the very first MAG trailer.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

Comments (35) Latest comment 3 years ago

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gmmonkey #1 4 years ago

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This looks fun
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monkie_king #2 4 years ago

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Surely "Massive Action Game" is only a working title?
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TurboBailey #3 4 years ago

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Coming spring 2009... more like winter 2009 (realistically)
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mcwildcard #4 4 years ago

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It'll be pretty impressive if they manage to pull off 256 player battles.
Kewl.
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bad09 #5 4 years ago

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Sony tell us spring 2009. So we can expect is spring 2010 and for Sony to hype it to death and talk about nothing else in that time.....
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the_dudefather #6 4 years ago

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I would be surprised to see spring, didn't expect to see it in 2009

Power to them if they manage it
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trfe #7 4 years ago

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This could be interesting if it works. G4 was very skeptical if they could even pull it off. There is a reason they didn't show any footage of it. I think it could flop because of
1. How do you have a squad or a leader when some people don't log in for days?
2. How do you make people listen to their leaders? If some want to do one thing, and the leader says another are they really going to listen?
3. People will be constantly logging in and out, which would make for inconsistent battles, i believe.

This is an interesting idea...but this has been tried before and has not worked in the past.
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boyakoosha #8 4 years ago

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Yaaawwwwn how boring. another year to wait for a game...Zzzzzzz
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Widge #9 4 years ago

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So the couple of months for other titles like RFOM2, Motorstorm 2 and LBP etc too much for you to wait?
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megastar #10 4 years ago

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bad09 is a douchebag!!!

FACT
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bad09 #11 4 years ago

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@ boyakoosha

Unfortunately it seems that how the industry works now. Hype a game to death for a year or more so when it does finally arrive you've lost half the people who were interested at the beginning through boring them to death

@ megastar

Why? I'm looking forward to MAG, I just know how Sony operate!

Edited by 1 at 17/07/08 @ 16:52
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agparrot #12 4 years ago

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This is definitely the sort of thing that could see me taking the PS3lunge.
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SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #13 4 years ago

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"This can only be done on PS3!!"*

Unless on a PC in 2003.

500 people in one zone

Also...

While a player can experience the game solo, the best way to succeed in PlanetSide is to join a squad. A squad is an ad hoc group of up to ten players led by a squad leader. Two or three squads can form a platoon, for a maximum group of thirty players. Benefits of being in a squad include the sharing of experience (resulting in a speedy rise in Battle Rank) and the results gained from working as a team.

It sounds great but a little less of the obvious bollocks would be nice. =]

*I'm paraphrasing here be he said something like that.
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stevetuck #14 4 years ago

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more like Laggy Action Game
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DrDamn #15 4 years ago

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If it does hit Spring 09 then Sony may have learned more than I gave them credit for this E3. I really doubt this is correct and is probably SCEE getting the wrong end of the stick - expect a sharpish retraction.
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Foxclose #16 4 years ago

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i think August 2009 - Beta version.
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Rash' #17 4 years ago

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Insomniac have delivered consistantly on promised release dates, so I would have to ask whether Zipper are 1st or 2nd party dev. If they're 1st than Sony will have a say in the eventual release of the game. On the other hand maybe Zipper can pull it out the bang. Like most here though, I am suspicious. The quality of the dev and and their experience on the platform will have the largest say.

Edited by 1 at 17/07/08 @ 17:07
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Kenshin001 #18 4 years ago

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Spring 2009 is Sony code for Summer 2010.
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Chufty #19 4 years ago

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So much skepticism. How do you guys know how far it is down the line? Just because they didn't show any in-game footage at E3? All that means is that the art is not there yet, which is way down the priority list behind netcode and engine code for a game of this type.

If they showed you some half arsed placeholder artwork then that just would just give the world's biggest whinefest (Internet) something else to moan about.

Besides, almost all games are dealyed.
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kingkatt #20 4 years ago

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Why give it a name that rhymes with LAG?
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Teamallstar #21 4 years ago

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Look forward to seeing the game sometime in 2011...

Not typical of Sony to announce something amazing to get people excited and then slowely lower the expectations over time whilst delaying the project over and over... Soooo tired of Sony

Edited by 1 at 17/07/08 @ 18:07
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Teamallstar #22 4 years ago

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@Chufty "Almost all games are delayed"

You have been dealing with Sony for far too long.

If the game does come out, I will be first in line to buy it. The idea does sound awesome.
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oMonarca #23 4 years ago

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Doomed to constant delays...
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stampax #24 4 years ago

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considering how often i get lag when playing 1 vs 1 on fifa, i wont hold my breath for this to work brilliantly....
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PanStre #25 4 years ago

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The only thing impressive about this game is that Sony went and made R2's 60-player multiplayer matches obsolete, as it were, before R2 even came out...sony you are a genius!
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Rash' #26 4 years ago

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"Why give it a name that rhymes with LAG?"

I assuming because they don't think like a 12 year old.
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timberwolf #27 4 years ago

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No way. f**king outright liars. there is no way it's meeting that date. .
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penhalion #28 4 years ago

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We all know that there isn't an internet connection around that can handle a 256 player battle. Reading between the lines we immediately see that it's actually an 8 on 8 squad battle set in a world where there can be 256 people online at once. So easy to form squads but, once the squad if formed, it's effectively an 8 on 8 game. The descriptions of online are getting really stupid as of late. First resistance has a 60 player battle that also turns out to be nothing more than an 8 on 8 squad affair, then this MAG get's in on the action.

I expect the next game to claim a persistent world with 1000 player battles...er where you join a squad of upto 8 other players and are given objectives which oppose another squad of 8 enemy soldiers....in a world where your actions are persistent...so the next 8 on 8 squad can come in and finish off the defences that your 8 on 8 battle left damaged.....but there are 1000 people in the world at once...you just never see more than 16 of them in total is all........
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Chufty #29 4 years ago

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We all know that there isn't an internet connection around that can handle a 256 player battle.

PLANETSIDE.

It's completely tragic that so few people experienced Planetside, one of the all-time greatest multiplayer FPS experiences.
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richardiox #30 4 years ago

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Spring? And they didnt have any gameplay footage to show at E3 wheras games likes Resi 5, also due in Spring, had playable builds.

I think they mean Spring 09 in the same way they meant Winter 07 for Wipeout HD. Or Autumn 07 for the Home beta. etc
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chris_ace #31 4 years ago

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Post deleted at 11:55:13 13-12-2011
Chufty #32 4 years ago

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How dare you...
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MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #33 4 years ago

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If this is true:

[link url=http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/07/17/halo-mm o-the-clues/
]http://ww w.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/07/...[/link]

then MAG is dead before it starts.
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Moonprince #34 4 years ago

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lol chufty,

love how your one word crapped all over his story...

Was a good game that, some epic battles were had...
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Gamesoldier01 #35 3 years ago

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No one is commenting on the latest footage of this game! MAG looks incredible and there have been several hands on reviews from different magazine and online video game sites. So far they have allowed 128 player matches for the reviewers to take a look at and they were pretty impressed with what they experienced. I have not heard of any lag to this point and the ranking systems seems to work out well because in order to gain more XP points for rank, weapons and equipment, you must cooperate with your squad leader, platoon leader and OIC, Officer in Charge. This game has a lot of potential and I also hope they can deliver on such an ambitious project. The latter part of 2009 is going to be filled with great FPS titles like Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, Battlefield Bad Company 2, Arma 2, to name a few.
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