Zipper Interactive’s latest game, MAG, has been given a European release date The 256-player online-only shooter will be available in North America on January 26th and will hit European stores just three days later, on January 29th 2010. Q1 of 2010 is looking hot for Sony, with the release of Heavy Rain in February and God of War III, Gran Turismo 5 and Final Fantasy XIII in March.
The MAG Beta is now over, after running for the past few months. With the end of the Beta, the only thing left to look forward to is the launch of the game on January 26th 2010. The official box art for North America has been revealed (see below) as well as some statistics from the beta. In short, over 42,000 matches were played during the beta test. Between November 9th and December 5th, over 65,000 players logged on, making almost 18 million kills. See the full statistics below.
The MAG Beta is coming to an end this week, making it the last chance to play the game until it is released early next year. The beta will end on Saturday 5th of December, at midnight. To bring the beta to an end, Zipper Interactive have organized a challenge for tomorrow evening (Friday, December 4th 2009). All you have to do is log on when the time is right, join a queue, and look for players with the distinguishable Zipper clan moniker to see if you have what it takes to beat Zipper.
The next phase of the MAG Beta has just kicked off. The game has seen more than 6,000 changes from our last phase to Beta 4, not the least of which include an increased level cap from 40 to 60, a retooled skill tree and experience curve, and an improved ranking system. Two new major features have been added to Beta 4, including “proximity chat”, which allows you to hear enemies communicating as you get closer, and the Shadow War bonuses system, which rewards players based on the number of contracts own by their PMC.
Episode 18 of Qore hits the US PlayStation Store later today. Episode 18 features ModNation Racers and their take on the “play, create, share” ethos of LittleBigPlanet, and another look at Assassin’s Creed II with an in-depth look at an all-new mission set in Venice. Audrey Cleo visits Industrial Light & Magic to bring you a behind-the-scenes look at the special effects for some of our favorite films spanning the decades from Star Wars to Transformers.
The MAG Public Beta has received a client update, bringing the version to v1.30. his new MAG Public Beta release includes over 8,000 updates and fixes, too many to list in detail, but we’ve included some of the significant changes below. If you are not yet a part of the MAG Public Beta there is still time. If you pre-order MAG at GameStop in the US or EB Games in Canada you receive access to the MAG Public Beta. And remember, from November 9th until November 20th the only way to access the MAG Public Beta in North America is to pre-order MAG.
Moments ago we received (another) MAG beta invite, but this time on our European PlayStation Network Account. If you happen to live in Europe, check your inbox to see if you have been lucky enough to have received a code. The beta in Europe will run until October 9th 2009 from 17:00 to 20:00 BST and 00:00 and 03:00 BST.
If you are a Qore subscriber, the first wave of voucher codes for MAG have been sent. If you haven’t received your code yet, don’t worry as more invites will be send over the next few days. The beta starts this Thursday, September 17th 2009 and runs until November 8th, so you have plenty of time to play the game. The email subject of the email is “You’re in: Welcome to the MAG Beta”.
MAG is due for release on January 26th 2010 if you live in North America. If you pre-order your copy now, Sony and Zipper Interactive are willing to throw in something extra. Depending on where you pre-order your copy of the game (Amazon, GameCrazy, GameStop etc.), you can get access to the public beta, exclusive PlayStation Home Space or a exclusive in-game character. See below for all the details and where you can pre-order from.
As you may already know, the MAG Private Beta is currently taking place, and it will soon be rolling out to the public. On September 17th 2009, MAG will launch into public beta, allowing regular players to take part in huge 128-player and 256-player skirmishes online. We at XTREME PS3 are lucky enough to be taking part in the Private Beta, and let me tell you, its a very impressive game. Unfortunately, due to a NDA we cannot post up any videos or information about the game until the public beta launches.
