Sony offers SOCOM PS3 details

By Robert Purchese Published 1 April, 2008

Online only. Clever clan system.

Sony has debriefed us on the upcoming SOCOM: Confrontation game for PS3.

It's online-only, as we had thought, and will allow 32 players to pretend they are in the army and shoot each other.

Key to its charms will be a clever squad and clan system where you can recruit as well as promote or demote members to whittle your way to a perfect unit.

This squad will be made up of members of special forces from around the world: the US Navy Seals, the Special Air Service (UK), the 1er Régiment de Parachutistes d'Infanterie de Marine (France), the Unidad de Operaciones Especiales (Spain) and the Kommando Spezialkräfte (Germany).

Other special forces from around the world will be added as time goes on, as will other characters, weapons and maps.

Once you have your team you will be able to compete in regional, national, and global tournaments; the emphasis is very much on competitive play here, and events will run on weekdays and weekends to ensure those with busy schedules can join in.

There will be seven maps to tactically run around at the beginning, and those doing the winning will be the ones using their heads and working together, we're told - there's no I in team.

Sony is also launching a special website to accompany the game where you can tinker with your clan while away from your PS3.

There's no release date for the game in Europe just yet, although we heard recently that it would be available in the US this September.

March over to our SOCOM: Confrontation gallery to see what the new engine can do in 1080p.

Picture of Robert.

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.

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Comments (23) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • MrXBob #1 4 years ago

    I find it funny that last gen Sony were saying Online was something gamers didnt care about and that it would never catch on, and now they're forcing out these online-only games!

    Same goes for Hard Drives, rumble.... They're the most two-faced company I've ever known.

    edit: I'm sure this game will be quite alright, that's not my point. Easy, fanboys.
    Edited by 2 at 01/04/08 @ 10:36

  • Deucalion #2 4 years ago

    MrXBob: As far as I know the game is developed by Slant Six, not Sony.

    That said, I agree that Sony has been sending mixed signals. It seems they have to many mouths employed.

  • JediMasterMalik #3 4 years ago

    There's nothing funny about it, last generation online was not important at all on consoles, this generation it is. I doubt they said "it would never catch on", that's as bad as saying graphics will never improve.

  • Darren #4 4 years ago

    @MrXBob - Seven years ago when the PS2 was released it was true that most console gamers didn't care about online gaming but the appearance of Xbox LIVE changed all that as it grown in popularity over the years. Although online gaming among console owners is still in the minority (as in less than 50%), can you really blame Sony for copying Microsoft in order to prevent their userbase looking elsewhere for online thrills? It's not like they're the first company to latch onto something successful and try to sell it too and they won't be the last either. At least with HOME Sony are attempting something a bit different from Xbox LIVE so they aren't copying Microsoft completely. ;)

  • betahoven #5 4 years ago

    Post deleted at 09:36:16 17-12-2011

  • miiiguel #6 4 years ago

    Rumble is last gen... Things go back, so what?

    "There's nothing funny about it, last generation online was not important at all on consoles"
    I think Halo 2 showed that your setence is wrong. And it should be honest to admit that it is MS that is raising online bar. You wouldn't have PSN if it wasn't for Live, I'm pretty sure (heck you wouldn't have PS3 if it wasn't for 360, imho).
    Edited by 1 at 01/04/08 @ 11:22

  • Darren #7 4 years ago

    @betahoven - "MS said nobody would need HDMI. Things change, so what."

    ... and that 1080p isn't needed for games hence the Xbox 360 shipped without support for it and it was only added a year later via a firmware update, just prior to the release of the PS3. Coincidence?

  • zedzee #8 4 years ago

    Is this a PS3 exclusive?

    If so, is this the page-turning moment, whereby games come out on PS3 first, before anything else, or only for PS3?

  • Benno #9 4 years ago

    This is one of the reasons i bought a ps3

    anyone used to love socom 1/2?

  • Deucalion #10 4 years ago

    I also remember Sony mocking MS for making multible SKU's when Xbox360 was first released.

  • miiiguel #11 4 years ago

    Much better than Killzone, imho.

  • captainrentboy #12 4 years ago

    Could be fun, but I thought that the vast majority of PSN Online gamers were a bunch of mutes, doesn't that make teamwork in games like this a bit difficult?
    Then again I think I'd rather have silence than the hear the utter plop I had to put up with on Halo 3 last night, the anger some of those young gents feel the need to unleash is crazy, I'm a delicate soul and the gutter mouth offended me greatly. I think I got called a cunt about 384 times in 5 minutes, that's some record.

  • hobo57 #13 4 years ago

    miiiguel: ... heck you wouldn't have PS3 if it wasn't for 360 ...

    imho - you wouldn't have Xbox if it wasn't for PSOne.

  • jlaakso #14 4 years ago

    I don't know, looks a bit sterile to me, compared to Call Of Duty 4. They do need some new things to remain interesting in the overcrowded modern military FPS soup. Then again, by the time it's out, COD4 will be yesterday's news and probably we're ready for a new take.

  • Prodigy_BE #15 4 years ago

    Thumbs up for ingame clan competition support.
    No more reporting to sites as gamebattles.com and consolegaming.eu
    Seth Luisi, the SOCOM producer really has that covered.

    SOCOM 1 sold 3.4 million copies. And SOCOM 2 sold 2.6 million copies.
    At their best, there where over 1.4 million PS2 users playing it online.

    So yes, this is a big gun for Sony in its end of year battle.

  • miiiguel #16 4 years ago

    hobo57, agree with that, completly.

    You wouldn't have PSOne if it wasn't for MegaDrive. We can continue to go back until playing with marbles...

  • monkie_king #17 4 years ago

    actually, the PlayStation had its genesis as a failed CD-ROM add-on project for the SNES. So we've all got Nintendo to blame.

  • Xerx3s #18 4 years ago

    "There's nothing funny about it, last generation online was not important at all on consoles according to sony, this generation it is. I doubt they said "it would never catch on", that's as bad as saying graphics will never improve."

  • Xerx3s #19 4 years ago

    "@betahoven - "MS said nobody would need HDMI. Things change, so what."

    ... and that 1080p isn't needed for games hence the Xbox 360 shipped without support for it and it was only added a year later via a firmware update, just prior to the release of the PS3. Coincidence?"

    Before you get your knickers in a twist: Ms said that nobody needs HDMI to display 1080p. Which is true as other formats support 1080p and higher as well.

  • hobo57 #20 4 years ago

    jlaakso : I agree with your comment, from the screenshots it doesn't look all that great - has a cartoony effect to it.

    Besides that i'm not sure the investment in gaming type (having to create teams and such), at least with COD4 you can just jump online and play a few maps.

  • 3william56 #21 4 years ago

    Er, zedzee, SOCOM is an old Sony property. It not appearing on the PS3 first will happen sometime around delivery of Halo HD on the PSN (exactly 1 year away, so I hear).

  • Apologie #22 4 years ago

    can't wait for these game...

  • Kenshin001 #23 4 years ago

    Wow, Warhawk, GT5P and soon Socom and Wipeout HD. Sony are really raising the bar when it comes to downloadable games on consoles.