The first next-generation game for Zipper Interactive (creators of the online phenomenon SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs), MAG offers a sweeping battle experience for a total of 256 players online. Eight player squads combine together to form a tactical military experience like no other.

At E3 2008, PlayStation owners were introduced to perhaps the most ambitious multiplayer title ever. MAG, Zipper Interactive's upcoming title (which stands for Massive Action Game) will sport up to 256 players online at any one point in time, pushing the PS3 to its very limits. Today, on the Playstation.Blog, Rade Stojsavljevic, the Senior Producer of the game, highlighted some details of the game.

While he didn't want to dive into the title significantly, Stojsavljevic did point out that the game's eight-person squads will figure in battles "in a new and unique World," all adding up to the 256 player limit. Although the game is extremely big, "it is an action shooter at its core," Stojsavljevic said. Players will be able to do just about everything that you'd expect within this genre except that you'll be doing it with 255 other players. According to Stojsavljevic, Zipper has used their knowledge of online gaming from their experience with SOCOM to "create a brand new server architecture to make an original game like MAG possible."

Few games did as little for me when they were announced as MAG did last year at E3. I mean, in a year where Resistance 2 was shown and Fat Princess debuted, the house of Sony dedicated part of its press conference to announcing that Zipper Interactive (the company behind most of the SOCOM franchise) was planning to bring 256 players online in the same match in MAG: Massive Action Game. And, that was pretty much it. We didn't play it, and there wasn't a big demonstration. We just knew that the SOCOM guys were working on something big and one day we'd see it in action.

That day has finally come.



After getting whisked away to the Zipper offices in Washington state, learning about the journey to MAG, and getting a rundown of the three paramilitary organizations in the game, a screen lit up and the first-person shooter began. Now, maybe I'm just out of the loop, but the first thing that caught me off-guard was the first-person perspective, but the next thing that got me was how organized all this stuff is so that the games doesn't just devolve into 256 people running around and killing each other.

When you first boot up MAG, you're going to need to enlist with a squadron. See, in this world, we're 20 years in the future and the planet's dwindling fuel reserves have made fighting outside of your own borders a feat most countries can't afford. With that, the fighting around the globe is left to three private armies that are always jockeying for position as the number one unit. Raven is filled with high-tech gear and sleek black outfits featuring molded plastic armor; Valor is the camo-wearin' crew you'd think of if a bunch of Army grunts splintered off and formed their own group; and SVER is comprised of soldiers who find hunks of scrap metal and make it into part of their armor. Each of these crews has a very specific color palette assigned to them so that when you see a purple and black base, you know you've run into Raven territory, and when you're behind a machine gun that's spray painted all kinds of crazy colors, you know that you're playing as a member of SVER. Every mission you go into in MAG is a contract you've been given by a government; if you suck, governments will start giving their contracts to the other team.

When you've picked your allegiance, you're HUD and menu screens are tricked out to represent your squad, and you become a part of the Shadow War. Now, what's interesting about this battle is that it is ongoing. Even when you're not playing, other people are and your faction could be losing or gaining ground in this never-ending conflict. When you are playing, there's going to be a hierarchy on the battlefield, and you'll need to know because everything that's happening out there -- every explosion, every plane that flies over your head, every command you receive -- is happening because of something a player did; nothing is pre-determined effect thrown in for the hell of it. When you hear an explosion in the distance, that's happening because someone somewhere just blew something up.



Anyway, starting from the bottom, you'll be a part of an eight-person squad when you jump into MAG. There, you'll have a squad-leader based on experience. That eight-person squad is part of the 32-man platoon. There, there's a platoon leader. That platoon is part of the 128-person army that's ruled by the one officer in command. All of these leaders will be issuing orders to their troops in terms of objectives and things that need to happen on the battlefield.

If taking orders from an 11-year-old who stayed home all weekend and leveled up to be in charge doesn't sound like fun, you're welcome to run wild and do whatever you want in MAG, but sticking with your squad and working towards objectives gives you more experience points than simply going Solid Snake and trying to bring down the world by yourself. Having one of these rank privileges is also going to come with a set of unique leadership abilities. Ranked-up folks can hand out FRAGO assignments (fragmented orders or little missions that are building toward a larger goal), run faster, call in tactical strikes such as mortars and gas bombardments, and use strategic maneuvers such as satellite sweeps that reveal all enemies for a few seconds.

The portion of the game I got to play was simple and only open to a five-on-five battle. I was a member of the Raven organization, and those Valor bastards were assaulting our base and trying to snag two of our vehicle prototypes. At first, I spawned at one of our turret stations on the outskirts of the base. When you start here, you can take control of the turret -- complete with machine gun and missile options -- or rush out of the structure, but you definitely want to do something about the giant breach in the wall. Here, the Valor men were storming the castle and it was up to me and my teammates to hold them off with our machine guns and grenades.

Now as everyone got the hang of the game's controls, damage was being dealt all around. When you or a comrade goes down, you'll have a handful of seconds before you bleed out and respawn. If a teammate can get to you and is equipped with medic functions, he (sorry, ladies, didn't see any female soldiers) can resuscitate you. The med kit, a gas you spray on people, can also be used on yourself if you've just been wounded and aren't in the bleed out process. There is no regenerative health.

After getting killed in this standoff a few times and coming back, an objective popped up on my screen that was set by one of my superior officers in the field. I booked to the spot on my radar, came to a yellow column of light, and discovered I was out in front of one of the garages holding the prototype vehicle the Raven guys were after. I stood guard, capped a few stragglers who were making their way towards the objective, and watched as I raked in a massive amount of XP. The totals only got higher when my squadron leader showed up and fought alongside me. This proximity popped up on my screen as a "Leadership Bonus" icon so that I knew we were still close enough to work as a team and get me some goodies.



Now, I can see where I wouldn't want to hang around and take orders from someone, but seeing that bonus tag pop up on my screen was pretty enticing. When the leader moved on to take on some guys attempting to bum rush some stairs in the open, airy base we were playing in, I found myself sticking with the unknown leader just so I could keep reaping the benefits of his presence.

Earlier, I talked a bit about how everything you see is happening because of a player, and that sense of being a part of something huge was clear in my demo. At some point, the Valor squad had penetrated deep enough into our base to take out the antiaircraft guns. As the smoke from the guns rose in the distance, the enemy flew in a forward spawn point so that its troops could parachute in when they respawned. Meanwhile, when our garages were getting screwed up and the vehicles were getting jacked, air raid sirens began to wail to let our team know things weren't going so well.

In terms of controls, MAG seemed to be hit and miss at this point. Aiming, shooting, and running all worked like you'd expect (there's a little run meter that lets you know how long you can jog before taking a break and letting the meter refill), but everything else seemed a bit convoluted. Granted, I was just getting the hang of the controls when the game ended, but the current scheme seemed a bit confusing and littered with extra steps. L2 is the grenade button, but this only switches me from my current weapon -- meaning I hit L2 because I want the grenade but I still need to hit R1 to throw the grenade. Why not just throw it when I hit L2?

What MAG desperately needs is a melee button. At one point I was blasting opponents in the distance when an enemy rounded a corner and was directly in front of me. Using all my Killzone skills, I began jogging backwards and tapping buttons searching for the one that allowed me to swing away with the butt of my rifle. Turns out, no such move exists. If you want to defeat someone in hand-to-hand combat, you need to cycle from your machine gun, to your pistol, to your knife and then press the attack trigger. Really? We couldn't have a melee move that doesn't require three buttons to get to?

At the end of a mission, you're presented with the stat screen you'd expect as it tracks kills, deaths, and the like. You even get a meter that fills up with the points you've earned so that you can watch yourself bank XP and head to the next experience level. Expect there to be all kinds of medals for your performance here as well.



It is still super-early for MAG, but the game shows a lot of promise. I have no doubt that all the kids who flocked to SOCOM will be down with working as a team and playing the part of their rank to push forward in this never-ending war, and the idea that you enlist with one organization and the battle goes on even when you're not at your console is a cool one. Still, I worry about how many people will be up for adopting the military lifestyle and falling in with the whole rank-and-file system. Zipper is shooting to have this bad boy out and live this fall. With that launch date coming up a whole lot quicker than you might imagine, the team made sure to drop hints that information on a beta should be coming soon so that you can get on the servers and kick the tires for yourself. Until then, we here at IGN will keep you up to date the best we can -- including an exclusive interview with Andy Beaudoin, the lead game designer for MAG, on Podcast Beyond Thursday, April 30, 2009.

It's been nearly a year since Sony released the first details concerning MAG. Otherwise known as Massive Action Game, the PlayStation 3-exclusive project is being developed by Zipper Interactive (heroes of the SOCOM franchise) and promises to be an exercise in pushing online shooters to a new level of player participation.

But since the game's reveal at E3 2008, things have gone pretty quiet. Until now that is. A news blast from SCEA received moments ago goes a long way in confirming that MAG is on schedule and should release alongside the other first-party heavy-hitters in 2009. The focus of the missive was actually Killzone 2, but the verdict there is already in.

What's of more interest to us is that Sony is essentially saying that it will be ready to pull off 256-player online shooter-style gameplay this calendar year. If MAG does indeed hit in 2009, Sony might well be sitting in a prettier spot as we start the long run-up toward the holiday season.

MAG is Zipper Interactive's most ambitious project to date. While Zipper is no stranger to online gaming, having introduced it to the PS2 with its popular SOCOM franchise, even Zipper has its work cut out for it because of the scale of this project. You see, MAG will features battles of up to 256 players simultaneously, in theory creating battles unlike anything seen before.

A clear evolution of Zipper's past experience, the team behind the game clearly wants it to be more than just chaos on the field. After all, MAG isn't just about throwing people together in a room and seeing what happens; it's been designed around three tenets that the team hopes will make it unlike anything you've ever played before. I'll take a look at those tenets, and describe how they felt in my hands-on time with MAG.

Tenet One, Scale: Big Battles, Big Moments

Having huge battles is paramount to the success of MAG. There are plenty of other multiplayer games in existence, but none have ever done fights with 256 players. Still, while having a horde of enemies and friendly soldiers on a field would be interesting, it would get old if it was just waves of enemies bashing into each another. Thankfully MAG's levels are supposed to be designed in such a way that players are funneled into huge action-movie moments. Whether its players engaging in large-scale firefights at a facility's gate or watching as explosions rain in from air support, MAG is designed with the hope that stunning moments will be commonplace.



In Practice: Unfortunately my hands-on time with the game was with a limited amount of players. While I certainly got to see the scope of the environments, and I saw some big moments as large-scale explosions occurred, I have yet to really get a feeling for what "big battles" will ultimately be like.

Tenet Two, Command: Organizing the Action

The goal of MAG is produce huge battles, but they definitely don't want it to devolve into chaos. To solve this, MAG breaks the teams up into armies, platoons and squads. Armies will encompass an entire team, platoons will be composed of 32 players, and squads will be the base of the army, as units of eight players working together.

Through playing matches, players earn the right to command armies. A battle commander will be able to issue orders to the overall army, and will be able to encourage them with "Leadership Abilities" that can give buffs to the squads or provide tactical support like airstrikes. On a smaller scale, squad commanders will be able to issue orders to take out certain parts of the map. And to encourage players to follow orders, double experience will be given for kills that take place in the area of an assigned objective.

In Practice: Having constant objectives did keep the action focused. If you care about leveling -- and chances are you will if this is a game you play a lot -- then you'll want to stick close to your squad to gain the experience benefits. Our commander also helped us out considerably, dropping airstrikes at key times during the fight. My one point of skepticism stems from the fact that we still fought on a much smaller scale than what was intended for the map, so I'm curious to see how far cohesion goes when a couple hundred people are engaging one another.



Tenet Three, Persistence: Every Battle Matters

How do you make every battle matter? Zipper's decided that having players choose a faction, and having an ongoing tournament between the factions, is the best solution. Players choose a faction, and then work with this faction to fight in battles that affect the overall structure of the game world. Fighting and winning key battles throughout the world is said to provide in-game benefits to the victorious factions, so players will be encouraged to actively participate and care about their faction's overall standing.

In Practice: Persistence is not something that can be demonstrated in a 10-minute demo, unfortunately. It sounds great during a presentation, but exactly how players' participation in battles that affect the game world will work remains to be seen. It also makes me wonder how they'll balance out the times when there are clearly factions that players overwhelmingly support, and others that are floundering because the audience finds them boring.

I left the MAG demo feeling cautiously optimistic. Zipper has a pretty outstanding pedigree for online games, so that makes me hopeful that it can achieve its ultimate goal of getting 256 players together on a battlefield. Once that happens, well, then we'll see how well MAG's design tenets hold up amongst a crowd of strangers on the Internet.

Last week we had the honor of being some of the first people outside Sony to try out MAG, Zipper Interactive's first game on the PS3. While you can find out a lot of information from our hands-on report, we wanted a bit more insight into one of the most ambitious shooters to come along in recent memory. Russ Phillips, art director for MAG, was kind enough to answer some of the questions that came up during our extended demo of the game. Hit the jump for the full interview.

With competitive shooters these days, one of the things that really drives the community is online integration. The ability to log on, see your character and his stats, see how your clan is doing, etc. Is that something that you guys are looking at integrating into MAG?

Definitely! We want you to be able to follow your character, build a career with him, and be able to get on any time of the day -- especially to follow your Faction's progress and what is actually going on in the 'Shadow War' so we'll have websites dedicated to providing this information. I think any player that has played a game like this will want to know where they sit and and where their faction sits. So yeah, we've given a lot of thought to that.

Speaking of how your Faction is doing; what is the ultimate end-game point of your Faction 'beating' the other ones for total domination of the Private Military Complex (PMC)?

[Writer's note: He was unable to answer this question (didn't know)] Here's the response from Zipper:
When a faction wins a contract, it resets the scores for that contract. Each contract is handled separately, as if it were a separate tournament. So if Raven wins the battle for Escort maps, the scores reset, awards are given, and the battle starts over. It's an ongoing, rolling competition for each game mode.

Rewards given for each are still under works, but expect more than just bragging rights. There will be personal benefits for soldiers in the faction (such as experience modifiers), as well as benefits that help the faction as a whole (such as increased power for command abilities).

Characters do not reset after each contract is won. No need to restart at level one, as the battle is an ongoing rolling tournament.



In our hands-on, we were able to drive around in armored vehicles and various things like that, but can you at any point pilot aerial craft? Or are they purely NPCs acting on orders from the team leaders?

Yeah, that is correct -- we felt that there was so much in MAG already that we didn't want to over complicate it. Because it's just enough at this point to be on the ground, use the ground vehicles to go where you want to go and then be able to call in an air strike on a mortar or an AA battery. We didn't want to overly complicate an already massive game.

So just a bit ago when I was playing the game, I experienced some of the basic idea of classes in MAG. I saw the standard recon, trooper, heavy setup -- so how flexible are the classes? Are they basic guidelines, or strict templates -- or can you customize them or modify your abilities?

Well, there's definitely guidelines classes, but when you start you can definitely customize him to your liking by modifying his look, also you can add a custom specialty to him as well. Like for example, if you wanted to go in as a sniper recon guy, or if you wanted to go in as a heavy assault -- these guys look really different on the battlefield. So at least from an aesthetic angle, they look quite different -- if you see a big, tough looking armored guy running around, you know he's going to be a heavy assault guy. He's probably going to have a rocket launcher, or something you might not have. Or you can go in as a recon guy and be a bit more stealthy and have your sniper rifle, and you'll look the part -- a bit lighter and sleeker looking.

Well will you be able to customize your 'support' skills then? Could you be any of those classes and equip a medical kit for healing other players, or a wrench for fixing vehicles and buildings?

We're trying to kind of separate those classes so that you really build a career with them. And it's not like a free-for-all where you can go in and do this half-way through and this the rest of the time. We want you to really excel in the chosen path that you made, and I think it works really well.

Do you have any idea about the number of weapons available?

Geez, I'm not sure -- I know there's more than 70. I mean there are a ton of weapons that you can unlock as you level up.

So being the Art Director and all, it seems like you'd be a perfect person to ask this: what inspirations help inspire MAG? What sort of movies, games, or books influenced your look and feel of the game itself?

Well I think that the inspiration for MAG itself is to create that gritty, real world war feeling. And that was kind of a tough thing to do. With three very different factions (with very different looks), [it] helped make us look at how we were going to create a cohesive, unifying look to MAG while still continuing to keep three very different looking Factions. But we were able to use film grain and some post processing effects that can help bring out the dark colors that give it a gritty looking feel.

How many maps is MAG going to ship with?

It is going to have 15 total, I believe there are 12 maps in the 'Shadow War' and another three training maps.

Actually training maps bring up another question -- clearly this game is online-focused, but will there be an offline mode where new players can experiment and try out the game?

Nope, there aren't any bots or anything, but you'll jump into a training mission with other new players. But when you join the 'Shadow War' maps and you'll be put in a map while your level is loading up. This is a map where you can just run around and experiment with the different aspects of MAG. Think of it as a secondary map that you play before the 'War' starts. That gives you time to hone your skills or get used to calling in air strikes or whatever.



That's interesting, because one of the things I was thinking about was the idea of having to wait in a server lobby for 256 players to enter -- seemed like a boring prospect. But the idea of entering into a skirmish type of battle while I waited for the server to fill up sounds like a great solution.

Yeah, it helps you get used to the commands and controls, or just lets you kick some ass before you get into the main game.

Final question, this is a bit early considering you guys are focused on shipping the game out -- but have you thought about anything in regards to DLC?

I can't really comment on that too much, but definitely something we've thought about. The game is going to have long legs.

MAG is starting to look like one of the biggest things to hit the shooter genre in a long time. The massive amount of players on huge maps working toward common goals is very ambitious and I was very impressed by what I saw last week.

It did leave me with some questions, however, and I was very fortunate to get to speak with MAG's lead designer, Andy Beaudoin. Hit the jump to get a little bit more detail on what players can expect from the game, where it might go in the future and the challenges of creating a game on such a massive scale.

What are the big challenges of creating something on this scale? 256 players is huge. What were the issues that you had to address right away?

I think that there are a couple of challenges. I mean, earliest on, it was trying to figure out how you create really unique gameplay around there. There's nothing out there to look at as an example of, "Ok, these guys have gone this way, we just need to tweak that a little bit." When you start to get to those large-scale numbers the old paradigms just don't work anymore. You can't just do a 256-player Capture the Flag battle. It's [sic] not going to play to the strengths of the scale of the game and that also is where you can get super, super chaotic.

So we had to figure out a game system that was going to be approachable and easy for new players but also a whole lot of fun and something that was going to be very unique.

Probably the second challenge was just in testing it and refining it. We have maps built around 256 players, that's a lot of bodies to get together to refine and fine tune. We've been fortunate enought that -- we obviously don't quite have enough here in the studio to help out but also using other Sony studios to help out with the testing.



The squad-based organization seems to be geared toward keeping things still compact. Is it really just eight players operating, essentially playing their own game while all the other game is going on around them or do you view it as a true 256 player experience?

No, it definately is a full 256-player experience. The breakdown is essentially at the initial point. Obviously, we don't want 256 players flipping the same switch. But the games all share a common goal, whether it be destroying an enemy fuel facility in our larger games or stealing two transports in [the demo on display at this event]. The breaking down of the squads is really how the battle starts out and as you get closer and closer to that final objective, like spokes on a wheel, all of those things start to come together at that central objective.

And then it's really up to the players. They're not separate battlefields, there are no constraints keeping you from fighting where you want. At the end, the best tactic may be for all the platoons to focus on one area. It may be for one to back the other up or maybe to exert equal pressure. We set the stage and it's really up to the players how they play it.

How long do you expect the average engagement or game session to last?

We're still tuning time frames but we're looking at around the thirty minute time limit for a large game. The smaller ones will have a somewhat shorter time frame so you can jump right in and play quick action or we can have the more epic battles.

The metagame, which you're calling "The Shadow War," what role will Zipper have in the story progression? Is there going to be some overarching narrative involved there?

We still have a lot of things to do on what happens after we go live, a lot of plans that we're making, but we're basically just setting the stage. We're setting up the game rules and we'll tune them so that this many battles is really how you turn the tide in The Shadow War but we're hoping that a lot of the players...

We'll set up the rules and we'll let the players come up with their own techniques. Maybe they'll play normally or maybe certain clans will want to focus on certain game modes on certain nights of the week or try to counteract what the other teams are doing. But we definately like to look at ways after we go live, after we see those things unfolding to progress the story and add to that.



What are some of these logistical elements? How will victory or defeat impact the individual PMCs?

We haven't yet released a lot of that information and we're going to wait a little bit for most of it but our plan has always been that you as an individual still feel a direct benefit. Maybe additional experience points, some other additional items available to you. And then on the squad level, platoon level and the whole team level, maybe you'll potentially have better surveillance assets or things like that. There are a number of in-game elements that we want to provide without, obviously, overbalancing things.

With the experience system, what sort of benefits can players expect to receive due to dedicated play?

When you start out the game, we give you a couple of base options that are extremely effective. You aren't coming in with a Nerfed gun by any means. And then as time goes on, really what you're doing is specializing. You're opening a lot more tools, a lot more kits, a lot more playthings. You're also developing some personal skills, maybe in how you react to explosives or how quickly you can defuse charges and things like that. All those things that really help you play as a better soldier.

And then we have a lot of options out there and lots of different ways to play. When you make those choices then, eventually, if you do focus in one area and specialize we give you that moniker that maybe you're a sniper if you put all your points into the marksman tree. Maybe you're an engineer if you put all of your points and skill into the repair and support roles. And then that lets us give you identification to other players and we can use that in our matchmaking.

When you start up a game for the first time, you're going to select a PMC to join. Is that it or will players be able to defect to one of the other companies?

We are certainly planning on having defection as an option somewhere down the road.



Do you think it can be an enjoyable experience simply as a lone wolf player?

Absolutely. There are days when I just don't feel like talking to anybody and when we go into playtest, I just strap on a silencer, get a P90 and my whole game is around getting behind enemy lines and taking out snipers. And I have a great time with that. But, at the end of the day, I'm helping out my team because I'm taking out snipers.

So, unless you're really standing off to the side and staring at the sky longingly, you're definately helping your team. And, even then, you're giving them one more target to shoot. So it's really hard to play and not help your team out in some way. So, even as a lone wolf player, you're going to have a great time.

Best case scenario for MAG: How do you envision it?

Obviously, we sell lots of copies, and we just have a lot of people who enjoy that we've created a new type of shooter. I mean, it's a whole different type of game. At the end of the day, you still have a rifle but the experience is like nothing else out there. You're playing different.

If you look at all the different shooters out right now, I love them, they're a lot of fun, but they're all permutations of "seek and destroy" and "capture the flag." And there are elements of that in this game as well but the scale is so much bigger and there's so much more variety in how things play out that it's a whole different game.

I really appreciate you taking the time to talk with me today.

Thank you.

MAG: Massive Action Game is the tentative name for an upcoming MMO shooter exclusively for the PlayStation 3 in development by Zipper Interactive. The game was announced at Sony's E3 2008 press conference, and will be released in Q3 2009. Various subtitles are being considered for the game, including MAG: Shadow War, MAG: Zero, MAG: Global Assault and MAG: Final Hour.

Gameplay

The game will utilize a new server architecture to support online battles with up to 256 players, with users divided into 8-player squads. Each squad will be led by a player who has advanced through the game's ranking system. Character statistics and development will also increase with frequent gameplay. The players most advanced in rank will be able to either direct the battle or participate directly in combat.

Basic battles will take place within ongoing, faction-based campaigns to encourage the player to actively play, with at least three factions being considered for inclusion; including American, European and Middle Eastern factions.

The game's E3 unveiling trailer featured large landscapes, tactics such as air strikes and parachuting, and a variety of vehicles, from tanks and APCs to airplanes. The game will boast numerous classes for players to specialize in; including medics, commandos and field demolition specialists. The game will be a first-person shooter.