January 25, 2011January 25, 2011

Happy Birthday MAG! Let’s Celebrate!

It may sound clichéd, but wow, time really flies! It’s hard to believe that it has already been a full year since our massive 256-person PlayStation 3 exclusive shooter, MAG, was released all over the globe. To celebrate our one-year birthday, we’re unveiling a handful of promotions as a thank you to our fans throughout the week.

First up, starting Wednesday, January 26 at 12am Pacific Time, we’re changing all in-game queue and “Happy Hour” bonuses to 256% until Sunday, January 30 at 11:59pm. If you’ve been meaning to level up to grab our various “level 60” trophies, our promotional time period is a great time to go for it!

Speaking of January 26, all day from 10am-5pm Pacific Time, members of the Zipper Interactive QA team (our best players!) will be online and playing MAG throughout the day. If you’ve never participated in our “Play MAG with Zipper” events, they’re great fun and offer you the perfect opportunity to show us your skills.

Our third and final promotion is a special “Faction Neutral” switch for the Domination and Acquisition modes. For the first time ever in MAG “Live,” our two biggest game types will switch from being PMC-specific to being open for defense by any of our three factions. Like our 256% XP bonus, this mode switch will be in operation from January 26 at 12am Pacific to January 30 at 11:59pm.

But this isn’t all we’re doing to wish MAG a happy birthday. We’ll also be posting some additional posts throughout the week, including a breakdown of MAG statistics and numbers on Thursday and a special “Five Things You Never Knew About MAG” article on Friday morning. It should be fun.

As always, everyone here at Zipper Interactive wants you to know how much we appreciate all the support and feedback you have given us over the last year and we hope you’ve enjoyed playing the game as much as we’ve enjoyed making and improving it. Thank you very much!

Comments are closed.

67 Comments

jpnn
January 25, 2011 at 6:08 am PST

Any similar plan for MAG players in Europe as well ?
- Chris Roper
  January 25, 2011 at 10:40 am PST
  
  In terms of having our staff play during peak EU times, not really (though if you can jump on now then you might find them), but the XP bonus of course applies to everyone worldwide!
Korbei83
January 25, 2011 at 6:18 am PST

Happy Birthday MAG.

(Haven’t played it, not my thing. But it’s a concept I can definitely get behind in hopes it translates to other genres. So keep up the good work!)
zombie_56
January 25, 2011 at 6:24 am PST

Happy birthday mag!
Link01
January 25, 2011 at 6:27 am PST

you know, if you guys threw a discount on the PS Store I would have totally bought it today :(
mystikalguy
January 25, 2011 at 6:29 am PST

Son of a…..MAG!!!!!
ALEXgrey69
January 25, 2011 at 6:35 am PST

Great!!! Thanks Zipper, Jeremy and Chris for the game and the podcast. Beyond!!!
Dave-BlueMeteor
January 25, 2011 at 6:36 am PST

Good job zipper, congrats for your awesome game!
KoRnFlaw
January 25, 2011 at 6:38 am PST

Born 1/25/10 Died 2/25/10.. MAGs servers were trash, it took me 15 minutes to get into game.
Maverick10
January 25, 2011 at 6:39 am PST

SWEEEEEET!!! thanks Zipper
rbanke
January 25, 2011 at 6:46 am PST

It was a fun idea that got boring for me after only a couple weeks. Every match was the same. There never seemed to be a point to leadership because on every type of match, there is only one or two ‘best ways’ to advance. Tried poping it in again recently and seemed mostly the same with some different menus.
MoneyMaker110
January 25, 2011 at 6:49 am PST

i’m in
Sagatron
January 25, 2011 at 6:49 am PST

Happy Birthday MAG! Thank you Zipper Interactive for the bonuses this week. I look forward to the faction neutrality maps in Domination and Acquisition and hope that they stay that way, even after the celebration.
- Chris Roper
  January 25, 2011 at 10:42 am PST
  
  Nothing is planned for keeping them neutral, but we may reconsider if the reaction to them is positive enough. =)
Seeing_Red_Again
January 25, 2011 at 6:55 am PST

I played MAG for over year since I was in a Beta a few months before it launched. Great online experience, I still load it up every now and then to play a few games each update.

Hope we see a MAG 2 on the PS4
Boss_Tycoon_
January 25, 2011 at 7:03 am PST

I might play it this week for that Valor LVL trophy, it’s the only pmc I need.
Zezzler
January 25, 2011 at 7:06 am PST

Happy Birthday MAG! Congratulations everyone on the Zipper team, and I hope Socom 4 is great success!
jvasq
January 25, 2011 at 7:08 am PST

wow neutral maps. that is awesome i think a lot of players have been wanting that for quite some time now. happy birthday
jimmyhoffa82
January 25, 2011 at 7:45 am PST

awesome! cant wait still love this game even after a year, happy birthday MAG, look forward to the +256%, those last 10 levels on my Raven character will go by that much quicker, and the neutral dom and aq maps should be alot of fun!

Also any chance this will coincide with the dom SVER freeze issues?
jimmyhoffa82
January 25, 2011 at 7:48 am PST

@KoRnFlaw that was a bloody year ago bud, things have changed greatly in the MAG universe, your missing out

@rbanke apparently you have never rolled with a good Clan, that has good leadership, sorry you missed out on one of the best experiences the PS3 has to offer.
ChaseHammerJ
January 25, 2011 at 7:59 am PST

No special edition item? How about a Happy Birthday Mag helmet or maybe a heavy armor that has a Happy Birthday Mag flag? lol that would be awesome.
- Chris Roper
  January 25, 2011 at 10:45 am PST
  
  We’d have loved to have added some new special gear to commemorate the event, but most everyone is working like crazy to finish up SOCOM 4. We already have plenty of heavy armor options available in the game anyway. =)
Superstrokey1123
January 25, 2011 at 8:02 am PST

I love mag, i rarely have time to really play it though. Ill try to get some time during this event though.
DarkHowl
January 25, 2011 at 8:27 am PST

Just to be clear, the 256% is being added to each individual game mode too? And if so, does it still stack with the multi-queue? It’d be nice to have about 768% bonus for an hour and 512% the rest of the day.
tk2012
January 25, 2011 at 8:57 am PST

This is MAG-nificent!
KoRnFlaw
January 25, 2011 at 9:02 am PST

@jimmyhoffa82 dude i played it and was really good at it. when that first real dlc came out and after being released for only two weeks it started taking 20 minutes to get enough people to play a game. i realized it was dying faster than any other game for multiplayer…. faster then warhawk.
Arcadian_Rebel
January 25, 2011 at 9:14 am PST

Sounds good! Thanks for the continued support for this game!
QDub
January 25, 2011 at 9:40 am PST

There a better way to Celebrate! It’s called making the game “Not” Freeze after 5 minutes. This Game is broken for a LARGE number of users!

DO NOT BUY IT!
J-Wat
January 25, 2011 at 9:59 am PST

Wow! 1 year later and I am 1 medal short of getting my “Eager Beaver” which will earn the “Massive Action Gamer” platinum trophy. I’d better get to work.
yohan12
January 25, 2011 at 10:10 am PST

OH MAN!! I am currently trying to platinum MAG and have spent the last few weeks going through Raven and am lvl 58, I don’t think I will sleep much for the rest of the week! Thanks Zipper
poodude
January 25, 2011 at 10:13 am PST

Oh man, I’m gonna be so torn between playing this and Dead Space 2!
FormerPSfan
January 25, 2011 at 10:15 am PST

This game failed in so many ways its not even funny. Still buggy as smeg a whole year later. Still a stomping ground for script kiddies trying to cheat, campers, trolls kicking people with no reason, teamkilling. the same boring unplayable maps which as you always fail to tell people most of which are *NOT* 256 player maps. bonus xp will not draw people back by the thousands. Perhaps some of you at Zipper could pop into gamestop and ask why this is one of the most traded games of all time. While your there ask them why all the used copies are coming close to matching the yearly release sports games that are nearly identical year after year.
Insanecyclone
January 25, 2011 at 10:20 am PST

I traded mine in a week before 2.0 was announced. Felt like I did something wrong then. It’s been on my backlog things to buy again. A $30 price tag now is still great and I will eventually get it but so much stuff is coming out this year.

Socom 4, Killzone 3…etc.

Happy Birthday MAG. I’m an old beta tester too.
mountain_duwe
January 25, 2011 at 10:23 am PST

Dunham…this Friday is more momentous than MAG’s birthday. You know what I’m talking about too.
iTofuMan
January 25, 2011 at 10:33 am PST

Why no discount on the game? I have the demo (from PS+) and i would have loved to get the game, but it would be nice to get it priced as the same(or cheaper) as retailer prices.
- Chris Roper
  January 25, 2011 at 10:47 am PST
  
  It wasn’t too long ago that the game was moved to its current Greatest Hits pricing, which we already think is a great deal given the amount of time that you can easily spend with the game.
piefromhell
January 25, 2011 at 10:33 am PST

awsome will have to pick this game back up
Brameriz
January 25, 2011 at 10:48 am PST

Happy B-Day Mag I never played it tho is it any good ? #TeamBON
Shadow-Man_4
January 25, 2011 at 10:51 am PST

Thanks Zipper for bringing such an awesome game to us! And happy birthday to MAG too! =)

Any more content planned? Cuz I would really love something new to refresh my experience with the game. As I’ve been playing since it’s release. I hope you guys are planning for something.

Cheers!
Your loyal fan Shadow Man.
tbon3man
January 25, 2011 at 11:00 am PST

Thanks Zipper for all the hard work on MAG,but instead of playing I wish you were hard at work bringing the SOCOM franchise back to the dominance that it once was in the PS2 days that started everyone playing all the great shooters we have now.That game could not be touched by COD or HALO in it’s glory days.
GibbShift
January 25, 2011 at 11:06 am PST

MAG and Dead Space 2 all week long. Thank you, Zipper!!! Will definitely be leveling up my Valor account.
MafiaBrett
January 25, 2011 at 11:16 am PST

W00t me and my clan WSG will be celebrating all week, thanks for a amazing game Zipper! It is a shame that alot of people just could not get into it..

VALOR #1!!!
pgsdi
January 25, 2011 at 11:16 am PST

ZIPPER = Genius…… MAG is the First FPS/MMO Hybrid ever and a joy to play. MAg is a only for a special breed to cult players who can appreciate a good game that is a blast to play…..

NEED MORE DLC!!!!!!!!!!

Word!
edyrfaciola
January 25, 2011 at 11:19 am PST

Great News, Congratulations Zipper and MAG team
I’m going to play like crazy with a bonus of 256%
I still didn’t bought the add-ons any discounts on them? cause I missed the PS plus discounts.
thanks
iTofuMan
January 25, 2011 at 11:21 am PST

Thanks for the reply Chris, but i was talking about the PSN price. i mean at walmart and gamestop the price for MAG (New) is around 20$, and i think on psn its 29.99(30$) it should at least match that price since isnt Greatest Hits titles 20$?…plus i only have like 21$ on my psn account and i hate buying 20$ cards and have money left over with nothing in my interest to buy.

But i mean i bet its worth it i have enjoyed the demo although online is a hassle to get into something, but i’m on a budget.
TheLastNinja-
January 25, 2011 at 11:39 am PST

Sweet! Just vet back to SVER for 10th Vet, definitely gonna take advantage of the 256% XP and try to hit level 70.

Happy MAGiversary! Thanks Zipper for creating one of the, if not the best, FPS of all time!
hokupaa1
January 25, 2011 at 11:48 am PST

i purchased 3 profile players for mag so my son could play his own player, but all have the same gmaer tag. how can i change this?
TheLastNinja-
January 25, 2011 at 11:53 am PST

@43 – You’ll need to create a new PSN account for your son, or you can make a sub-account under your PSN for him, he’ll be able to have his own PSN ID that way as well. B&C slots are locked to the PSN ID you bought them for.
WarHawk_
January 25, 2011 at 11:53 am PST

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAG !!!!!!!!!! Thank you Zipper for the awesome job you guys did, I’m really looking forward to Socom 4, and also looking forward to yet another chance to play with/against Zipper… 2morrow should be a fun day :)
XMbeaner
January 25, 2011 at 12:24 pm PST

Zipper proves again that if you support your game you will be rewarded 10 fold. This is just like when that guy feed the masses with the fish a loaves. Exactly the same thing.
niked
January 25, 2011 at 12:31 pm PST

Happy birthday! Well done zipper and happy MAG lives! Love the game and bought the CE edition and the first DLC. never got around whit the second but might do know! THNAX and wish many great updates and news for MAG players!
Kittens323
January 25, 2011 at 12:57 pm PST

“We’d have loved to have added some new special gear to commemorate the event, but most everyone is working like crazy to finish up SOCOM 4. We already have plenty of heavy armor options available in the game anyway. =)”

I’ve read over and over that the MAG team and the SOCOM team are separate. Is this the reason that issues in MAG take forever to be resolved? Like the B+C character slots not working with the downloadable version of MAG, and the fact that you can’t even buy Interdiction buy itself. MAG is good, but it is seriously flawed. With this year releasing new shooters to grab attention, MAG better get it’s stuff together and keep what small player base it has.
EvanOger
January 25, 2011 at 12:57 pm PST

I’m so excited for this! Sounds like me and a few of my friends will be pretty busy until Sunday. Hopefully I’ll see you QA guys from Zipper online!

Now, if only I didn’t have to pay for my extra character slots…
Nynja
January 25, 2011 at 1:31 pm PST

Has there been any thought to adding some sort of AI bot setup players can utilize to practice with the Move controller?

Trying to jump into a game with an established community using completely foreign controller can be very discouraging. Especially when I know that if I just switch to my DS3, I could perform so much better.

Some sort of shooting gallery or an AI simulated match where Move users can roam about would be perfect.