March 30, 2012 by Paul Curtin
Sad news today as yet another popular game development studio bites the dust. Zipper Interactive, best known for being the original creators of the SOCOM series and more recently behind the awesome 256-player MAG MMOFPS and less-than-stellar SOCOM remake, are closing their doors. After rumors had been floating around the internet all week, minutes ago Sony confirmed the closing of their studio in a recent statement to IGN:
“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 complete 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.”
Zipper caught a break when their PlayStation 3-exclusive, SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy SEALs, launched just days before the entire PlayStation Network was brought down last April in the now infamous hacking event that caused PSN to stay down for weeks. While the latest SOCOM was a disappointment even without the PSN hacking factored in, MAG was an innovative game that I, for one, was truly looking forward to seeing a sequel to. But hey, at least there are still other MMOFPS games to look forward to, like PlanetSide 2 and Dust 514, that make this day not totally suck.
