Summary
Recent years have seen the live service model of gaming go through some serious ups and downs, with titles likeFortnitecontinuing to draw in players while big-budget contenders likeSuicide Squad: Kills the Justice Leaguehave failed to find their footing. But despite the setbacks suffered by several recent live service titles, gaming powerhouse Sony still seems determined to make the contentious business model work. With Sony not ready to abandon its live service ambitions just yet, now could be the perfect time for it to revive the underratedPlayStation3 shooter,MAG, for a new generation.
Created by developer Zipper Interactive and published by Sony Computer Entertainment in 2010,MAGwas an ambitious multiplayer shooter released exclusively for the PlayStation 3. Allowing up to 256 players to battle it out online in an era when mostmultiplayer console gamestopped out at 24 players or fewer, the online-only military shooter was ahead of its time. With such large-scale shooters remaining a relative rarity, bringing backMAG’s massively multiplayer online action with an increased emphasis on scale and strategy could spell success for Sony.
MAG’s Massive Multiplayer Battlefield Deserves a Second Chance to Shine
Though largely overlooked today,MAGoffered players some unique gameplay mechanics that still set it apart from most contemporary shooters, with the most obvious of these being the sheer scale of its online battlefields. While most console shooters of its era only allowed for a few dozen online players at most,MAG’s six multiplayer modesunleashed anywhere from 64 to 256 players onto the battlefield at once to wage war. WhenMAG’s servers were shuttered in 2014, it left a hole in the console gaming landscape that remains unfilled.
If Sony revivesMAGfor the PlayStation 5 it needs to do more than just give the game a graphical overhaul, it should also increase the depth and scale of the gameplay. Giving players a real sense of ownership over the territory they’re fighting for control of would be one way to do this, withAmazon’s MMONew Worldproviding an unexpected template for how such a system could be implemented. And when it comes to stepping up the scale in aMAGsequel, the formerly Sony-helmedPlanetSide 2proves that bigger battlefields can be a blast.
A MAG Sequel Should Step up the Scope and Scale of Combat
The way the fight for control of theisland of Aeternum inNew Worldis handled offers a good example for aMAGsequel to follow. Rather than just being a battlefield to be conquered,New Worldplayers live, craft, and interact with others in the game’s settlements. Implementing a similar system for aMAGsequel where players could build up defenses, craft and refine weapons, or learn new skills in conquerable outposts on a persistent battlefield would add depth to the gameplay and real stakes to in-game battles.
If Sony went this route with a rebootedMAGit would need to increase both the player count and map size to make the game world feel truly alive, and the massively multiplayer online shooterPlanetSide 2provides the perfect template for this. Launched in 2012 for PC and PS4,PlanetSide 2lets up to 2,000 players battlefor control of a single, seamless map. Setting a follow-up toMAGon a similarly sized map would dramatically increase the scale of the in-game skirmishes and give Sony a unique exclusive with the potential to pull in new players to PS5.
By keeping what worked from the original title while drastically expanding the scope and scale of the gameplay, aMAGsequel could be a big hit for Sony. And while releasing a new live service title in today’s gaming landscape is always a risky proposition, a well-made sequel to this often-overlooked shooter could provide players with yet anothermust-have exclusive for PS5.
PS5
Sony’s PlayStation 5 is part of the ninth console generation and debuted with a launch lineup that included Demon’s Souls and Astro’s Playroom. The console comes with a Blu-ray disc, although a digital-only edition is also available for a cheaper price.
