Zipper Community Day 2011 Recap

Last week was big for everyone here at Zipper Interactive as we finally revealed details about SOCOM 4 and its extensive competitive multiplayer modes. To help us celebrate the occasion, we flew in a group of diehard SOCOM community members to our headquarters in Redmond, WA to try out SOCOM 4’s multiplayer firsthand, while also giving them the opportunity to grill us with their burning questions.

The day began with “The 18” — as the SOCOM community has since begun to call them – being led on a tour of the entire Zipper Interactive studio. They met artists and sound people, QA testers and producers, and even had the opportunity to say hello to our executive staff and our designers.

Following the tour was a brief presentation that included a look at one of SOCOM 4‘s never-before-seen single-player levels, Onslaught, which they were also able to play for themselves later on during the event. We also formally announced 3D support and the game’s official North American release date of April 19th!

Of course, what the community really came to get were the first details about the game’s multiplayer features, as well as some personal time on the controller. We had four maps to try out, including the classic map Abandoned that you can receive free for pre-ordering SOCOM 4 from GameStop, and two (of four) different modes for play, Suppression and the brand-new Last Defense. As an added bonus, we also let everyone get a taste of SOCOM 4’s “Classic” game-type which melds an old-school rule set (no respawn, no health regeneration, etc.) with all of our current maps and game mechanics.

At the end of our event, a number of SOCOM 4 development leaders sat down for a one-hour roundtable where the fans could ask them questions and provide feedback regarding what they just played. This was important to us not only because we wanted to be able to give something back to the community, but because their feedback is incredibly valuable in making SOCOM 4 everything it can be.

Want to try out SOCOM 4 for yourself? We recently announced that a beta is on its way with specially-marked copies of Killzone 3 (your first of many ways in). We’ll have more details on other ways to access the beta soon, but in the meantime, check out the official SOCOM 4 website for the latest info and don’t forget to download the February 11 episode of the official Zipper Interactive podcast, Zipline, when we sit down with Lead Designer Travis Steiner and Multiplayer Lead Designer Kevin Schmitt – it’ll be a good one!