Recently we had the incredible opportunity to share with you a first look for the MAG project at the SCEA E3 Press Conference. We’re thrilled with the early responses from everyone and have been amazed at all the creative speculation about the game. If you haven’t seen the news, MAG is a new online shooter coming in 2009 where up to 256 players wage battles as 8-person squads in a new and unique World. You can watch the press event here or download it from the PLAYSTATION Store.

Though it’s early to talk in depth about MAG, we can definitely quell some fears we’ve already heard from you about how MAG will need to compromise on gameplay to support its size. Well, it may be massive but it is an action shooter at its core. You can run around and shoot enemies, throw grenades, and drive vehicles just like any other shooter except with MAG you’ll do it with up to 256 players. The team at Zipper was one of the pioneers of online gaming on consoles with the SOCOM franchise and they’ve used this knowledge to create a brand new server architecture to make an original game like MAG possible.

Here’s a sneak peak from one of our internal play sessions:

You must login or register to view this content.

We’re anxious to talk more about MAG and all its features as soon as we can. Until then, stay tuned to the PlayStation blog for more details and official news.

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."