Confirmed: Zipper Interactive being shutdown

[solidsnakejej]

First thing is that this is from Kotaku, Last 3 games were MAG, Socom 4, Unit 13, none of which did good.

Zipper Interactive, a first-party Sony studio responsible for the creation of the SOCOM series and PS3 shooter MAG, is in the process of being shut down, according to Kotaku sources.

Sony has repeatedly declined to comment on the matter to Kotaku this week, citing their policy not to discuss rumor or speculation.

But we've heard chatter for several days that Zipper was in the process of being hit with layoffs and a project cancellation. The scope of the layoffs appears to indicate a studio shutdown.

http://kotaku.com/5894692/rumor-soco...t-down-by-sony

[TEEDA]

Noooooo....Wanted my SOCOM I and II HD. lol

[Chris Metal]

SOCOM I & II would probably be ported by another studio. Anyway last SOCOM game I tried was confrontation and that wasn't even Zipper. They need to make SOCOM again, start from scratch and replicate the gameplay of SOCOM II, or at least provide a 'classic' game mode which is optional.

[OmniStalgic]

they already had there chance with Socom4...I don't wish misfortune on anyone, but if Sony doesn't want to invest in the anymore, I can't blame them...

Dunno what happened Maybe the original team wasn't there or something, but Socom had one of the loyalist fanbases across any platform, like ever. The Socom website was full of long-time fans waiting for a remake. When it didn't happen in Socom Confrontation, Socom4 was supposed to reclaim the magic--and ultimately failed. Maybe half of the request from the forum were met, the fans were tearing it apart from the beta till launch, and the way it sold reflected it.

Why incorporate modern play mechanics when the originator of these things is still in the hot-seat Call of Duty will be here ever year, there's no need to incorporate trends from those types of games in a Socom title, I honestly don't even know what they were trying to do with Socom4 really...All the needed to do was remake socom 2, that's all the fans were asking for, and they could've easily sold a million units.

[Cyrus]

Omnistalgic nailed it.

It really is difficult to understand and see what they were trying to do with Socom 4. It was such a weird product. Socom 4 would've been the easiest game to develop like ever to make it successful. Just copy the gameplay mechanics, weapons etc. and online infastructures exactly from Socom 2. Add in a couple of new game modes, create like 7 new maps and add in 10 best classic maps and that would've been it. They couldve continued to support the game with DLC, Socom community wouldve bought it all.

Damn did Zipper fail with that product or what? For me, it was an even bigger disappointment because MAG raised my hopes back up by being such a damn good game. I thought Zipper had the magic back but I guess S4 was made by a completely different team or I dont know. Just a complete failure and I cant blame Sony if they dont want to support Zipper again.

[Diresu]

They had enough chances. Sony is cutting their loses.

[drakkar]

Shame to see it go this way, but I have to agree that after Socom 2 things just didn't seem to gel. Mind you I never really played MAG so maybe
they returned to form there. I also skipped Socom 4 because it just didn't seem like Socom and me and multi player games these days don't really mix
and with the PSN outage it gave even less incentive into the game (though I do have a sealed copy sitting around). The single player just seemed like
a complete mess and completely against the grain of what a Socom should be.

[Gribble-Grunger]

do we actually have any real proof that this is fact yet?

[solidsnakejej]

Nothing official but rumor is that they will be shut down by next week.
http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/...sed-sony-rumor

But this has been a pretty big story and they haven't denied it so I looks more and more true with each passing day they don't deny.

[GTAce]

they already had there chance with Socom4...I don't wish misfortune on anyone, but if Sony doesn't want to invest in the anymore, I can't blame them...

Dunno what happened Maybe the original team wasn't there or something, but Socom had one of the loyalist fanbases across any platform, like ever. The Socom website was full of long-time fans waiting for a remake. When it didn't happen in Socom Confrontation, Socom4 was supposed to reclaim the magic--and ultimately failed. Maybe half of the request from the forum were met, the fans were tearing it apart from the beta till launch, and the way it sold reflected it.

Why incorporate modern play mechanics when the originator of these things is still in the hot-seat Call of Duty will be here ever year, there's no need to incorporate trends from those types of games in a Socom title, I honestly don't even know what they were trying to do with Socom4 really...All the needed to do was remake socom 2, that's all the fans were asking for, and they could've easily sold a million units.

Omnistalgic nailed it.

It really is difficult to understand and see what they were trying to do with Socom 4. It was such a weird product. Socom 4 would've been the easiest game to develop like ever to make it successful. Just copy the gameplay mechanics, weapons etc. and online infastructures exactly from Socom 2. Add in a couple of new game modes, create like 7 new maps and add in 10 best classic maps and that would've been it. They couldve continued to support the game with DLC, Socom community wouldve bought it all.

Damn did Zipper fail with that product or what? For me, it was an even bigger disappointment because MAG raised my hopes back up by being such a damn good game. I thought Zipper had the magic back but I guess S4 was made by a completely different team or I dont know. Just a complete failure and I cant blame Sony if they dont want to support Zipper again.

This.

Seriously, I don't care, they failed and disappointed me since SOCOM 3.
Confrontation wasn't too bad actually (gameplay wise), but it was ruined with horrible loading times and a stupid UI. I know the game wasn't made by Zipper, but it gave me hope. Then I played the SOCOM 4 Beta and the news that no server browser would be included came up. From this point on I gave up. MAG was decent with a fantastic concept, didn't like the controls though, didn't feel solid at all.

Goodbye Zipper, you won't be missed, since you died ages ago.

[solidsnakejej]

Sony Computer Entertainment can confirm the closure of Zipper Interactive, a Seattle-based internal game development studio that has been part of the global development operation of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios (SCE WWS).

The closure is a result of a normal cycle of resource re-alignment within SCE WWS. Zipper has completed all work associated with its most recent project, Unit 13 for PlayStation Vita. Zipper titles MAG, SOCOM 4 and Unit 13 will continue to be supported, including the new Daily Challenges in Unit 13.

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/a...teractive.aspx

Edit:

[Diresu]

Hopefully the talent will be moved to other internal studios so people still have work, but this isn't a surprise at all considering their track record.

[GTAce]

Lol, read the comments: https://www.facebook.com/ZipperInter...50639614188733

[Gribble-Grunger]

what was it Sony said about 'making less games'? perhaps i SHOULD have interpreted it literally

[D3adcell]

Lol, read the comments: https://www.facebook.com/ZipperInter...50639614188733

It's true. I played Socom 1 and 2 probably well over 1,000 hours combined. Once Socom 3 came out I didn't really like the direction it was going, still played it but not as much and didn't really care too much. Stopped playing it pretty quickly. Then Socom Confrontation came out (worst waste of 60$ at the time) and then Socom 4 came out (maybe even bigger waste than confrontation because of the higher hopes from zipper). They spent millions more in development on Socom 4 to dumb it down and make a casual as fuck shooter.

[masteratt]

Lol, read the comments: https://www.facebook.com/ZipperInter...50639614188733

Lol wow. Harsh but fair I guess. MAG was pretty damn awesome though.

[Kiwi]

Lol wow. Harsh but fair I guess. MAG was pretty damn awesome though.

Yea, some good times were had on MAG, albeit for a pretty short period of time.

[Segitz]

Mag is "free" now, isn't it? Maybe we should, in about 3 weeks (i.e. after my thesis) have a little congegration?

[masteratt]

I would love to have a proper e-mpire match in ANY game. But after the initial "OMG YEAH COOL IDEA LET'S DO IT!!" it never pans out lol.

Yea, some good times were had on MAG, albeit for a pretty short period of time.

Well one period of time was an epic non-stop 12+ hours session. I don't know if you remember that or were even in it from the start but that is still my personal best I think for an online game. Not even CoD beat that.

MAG did the impossible of making it feel like team-work. ALL online FPS (even BF), you just bugger off on your own. MAG was "no, you asshole, your team depends on you, do this mission now!" and, it pulled it off. Using mission related XP as incentive and I guess a keen community who wanted it to work. And just the whole thing really. I loved how when I took out a turret, it felt like I really helped my team out.

Shit I might get the "free" version, starting to remember how awesome it was. But it's sad it'll probably have player count of low 100s, if that. It was hard to find matches even when it was somewhat new.

[Cyrus]

MAG is easily one of the best multiplayer shooters ever. Such a shame we wont see a sequel now I guess. Was hoping Zipper wouldve moved on to create it as a launch window PS4 game after the disastrous S4 happened.