Judging by the comments posted in the PlayStation blog entry by Zipper's senior community manager Jeremy Dunham, many players have already had a chance to log in and go a few rounds in the Massive Action Game beta, but later commenters and some of our own tipsters report that they cannot connect to the game at all. Dunham addresses the issues in his replies to commenters, stating that they are working to fix a "server hiccup."

Dunham's most recent reply, posted a half-hour before this post went live, explains that, "Yes, we're having a server issue at the moment" and "We are in the midst of fixing it," urging players to "Hang in there."

In case his message is not clear, I've prepared a visual aid.

MAG Beta Starts Today [PlayStation Blog]

MAG has gone gold, and all is on course for its January 26th North American release. Now all Zipper Interactive and Sony have to do is make sure the game doesn't explode on launch day, so they're holding an open beta for the game between January 4th and January 10th. When they say open, they mean extremely open. If you are in a territory with the PlayStation Network, then you're in. Simply log into the PlayStation Network tomorrow, download the MAG open beta demo, start it up, and wait for it to download upwards of 2.3GB of data. You'll want to do this as early as possible, to make sure you aren't stuck waiting when the 4th rolls around.

Consider it Zipper Interactive's way of saying Happy Holidays, please buy our game next month.

MAG is Gold, Beta for Everyone Soon [PlayStation Blog]

If that's not you, consider this a friendly reminder that if you'd like to participate in the upcoming MAG public beta running next month, the pay-to-play program will require a pre-order from the right retailer. And if you're considering hoping into this leg of the beta fun, make sure the active beta hours fit with your personal schedule.

MAG Pre-order Public Beta Now Open [PlayStation.blog]

Zipper Interactive's Massive Action Game has already been beta testing for a select few, but it appears this round of invites is going out to a much much larger group—the kind needed to test those 256-player battles in a more accurate setting.

The potential bad news is the warning that "registration does not guarantee participation," which means some MAG hopefuls may remain just that.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Both GameFly and GameStop are listing the title for release during the month of January 2010. Those retailers were expecting MAG on November 24 of this year as of a week ago. When the PlayStation 3 game was being shown at E3, Sony Computer Entertainment America pegged MAG's release date more vaguely, as a "Fall 2009" title.

Earlier this year, Sony named MAG, along with God of War III, as one of the PS3 titles that would ship during its fiscal 2009, a window that extends to March of 2010.

While Sony hadn't yet applied a firm release date to the online shooter, it's looking less likely that the game will make that Fall window, if retailer listings are correct.

Update: A Sony Computer Entertainment spokesperson said "We haven't made any announcements in regards to the launch date, the retailers are just speculating."

Thanks to Kev for the heads up.

While this clip does go into some of the technical side of creating a game for 256 simultaneous players at once, the main thing it does is talk about how awesome it is going to be, and how big of a leap the 256 player mark really is. I think we've established that already though, haven't we? Until I am actually in the middle of a firefight with 255 other people around me, the game still remains a pretty yet slightly above average shooter.

What Is It?
MAG stands for Massive Action Game, and that's exactly what it is. Up to 256 players can participate in a single battle at one time between three different Private Military Companies. Wins and losses affect the global standings for your PMC, with players able to rank up to become squad, platoon, or army commanders, granted access to special powers as they grow in experience. A massive online shooter with persistent elements.

What We Saw
I played a good 15 minutes of an ongoing multiplayer match set on a cluttered industrial battlefield.

How Far Along Is It?
Everything seems to be firmly in place for a Fall 2009 release.

What Needs Improvement?
Personality Deficit: Looking through the fact sheet for MAG reveals an interesting back story about a dark future in which Shadow Wars are fought between private military companies, but the game itself doesn't seem to reflect this. It feels like any other online multiplayer game. It isn't bad, but it doesn't really stand out. Perhaps the portions outside of actual game play better reflect this, but what I played just felt a bit too plain vanilla.

Lag Issues: Even in the controlled environment of a trade show demo the lag monster rears its ugly head, and I found myself firing at enemies that were there one moment, gone the next, disappearing from my sights only to reappear as a corpse a moment later. Conversely, at least once I was shot by a guy who I swear wasn't there a moment before. I'd hate to see such an ambitious game ruined by networking issues.

What Should Stay The Same?
The Shooting Is Just Fine: The actual game play may lack personality, but it is smooth and satisfying. Perhaps a bit too smooth, as I took a tip from my nephew's running sniper Halo style, bringing up the scope and taking out enemies with headshots while running through the thick of battle, but that's exactly how I like it.

So Many Objectives: The map I played on was littered with strategic battlefield objectives, giving players many different ways to advance along the battlefield. Blowing gates to push your way into enemy territory is much more satisfying when you manage to do it on your own while the rest of your squad keeps the enemy occupied at another point along the line. Opportunities to stand out in the crowd, especially when the crowd is theoretically this big, are always welcome.

More Than Killing: As players progress they can invest in additional skills that allow them to become more useful in battle, such as the ability to revive fallen teammates and repair objects. Aside from giving players something to do, it also helps encourage little side skirmishes. I spent a couple minutes participating in a pitched battle around an anti-aircraft battery the enemy was trying to repair...a little battle within the battle.

Final Thoughts
Though MAG promises massive battles between 256 players at a time, I've still yet to see a battle on this scale. I got to drive an APC to an area where such a battle would eventually take place, but the way that battles progress makes it hard to actually demonstrate the feature. What they need to do is set up one of these massive battles and let us wade into that. Until I experience that, MAG will remain as generic as its name in my eyes.

While the PlayStation 3 game's first gameplay trailer may not show all 256 combatants on-screen at once, cumulatively we'd wager they make that number, if not exceed it. If you're a fan of the SOCOM series or want a big, big Battlefield-style experience, I'm guessing MAG will already be in your sights.

If not, see if the PS3 exclusive's first real-time game footage and its promises of "unrivaled action" floats your boat.

MAG Gameplay Premiere HD [GameTrailers]

That's obviously far more than Zipper's SOCOM series, for which it is likely best known, operating on a design scale that's just as ambitious. Managing that many first-person shooter fans may sound like a nightmare, but individual squads will be broken down into eight person teams—and players will be rewarded for sticking with their squadron. Sony and Zipper have been relatively quiet on the game since its announcement at E3 last year, but recently showed the game off at an event held at the developer's HQ.

That means brand new media, including our first in-game look at the title. Since MAG has to support such a huge battlefield and massive numbers of player characters on-screen, it may have to make some visual concessions. Judge for yourself how good MAG looks in our gallery.

The official Massive Action Game site features little more than some carefully camouflaged screen shots of the game and a preview of the din we would expect from a 256-person multiplayer shooter. You'll also find links to intelligent discourse on the game's official forums, plus plenty of options to "befriend" MAG.

Sony will be showing off the game to press later this month, so expect to hear a lot more than radio static soon.

MAG [Official Site]

While the press release Sony issued last week pegged PlayStation 3 exclusives inFamous, Heavy Rain, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and the aforementioned God of War III and MAG for a release this "year"—largely assumed by the more literal of the internet to mean no later than December 31, 2009—the updated release window extends just a bit further.

Even further than the February 19th we gave them, actually, as Sony clarified that its line-up of PlayStation 3 titles would "hit throughout the fiscal year." The company's fiscal year ends March 31, 2010, which could mean a longer wait for God of War III or MAG or, well, anything.

As we wrote when the release was issued last week, seeing God of War III on store shelves this year would be a surprise. A welcome surprise, but earlier than we were expecting. We'd love to be proven wrong.

MAG? We could definitely see that, considering that the title seemed to be months ahead, development-wise, of Kratos' PlayStation 3 debut. As for the rest of the line-up, we're hoping they all squeak out before the holidays.

Considering how loose the release dates are, we're not updating the Kotaku Master Calendar just yet. Maybe at E3.

The survey featured "at least 15 questions related to payment plans for the game," says Bitbag. "Seems Sony’s plan is to charge a yearly or monthly fee, while also one time fees for content downloads. It also mentioned hosting partners being EA, Sony, and Activision."

Conveniently, no screen grabs of the survey itself exist, although Bitbag did provide some of the email. If anyone in our community's taken this survey, or has additional info about it, let us hear it. Thanks.

Sony to Charge Monthly/Yearly Fee for MMO MAG? [The Bitbag, thanks Tevin]

In fact it was shown to a focus group less than a month before E3. One among that group, after seeing the MAG E3 debut, reached out to me, under a promise of anonymity, to describe what was shown and asked of the group. Put simply, MAG - whatever title it comes out under - will be a mercenary combat MMO. We're told that it will more than likely carry SOCOM branding, as Zipper Interactive is behind it. And if so, it could be called SOCOM: Shadow War or SOCOM: Zero. Though Sony did stress it was a brand new IP at the press conference.

For purposes of identity protection, my source, who has experience in other video game focus groups, will be called Orange. Being identified could cost Orange, and others, future work.

"They gave us six options for taglines at the end," said Orange, who could only remember four: MAG: Shadow War; MAG: Zero; MAG: Global Assault and MAG: Final Hour. Orange said the group liked Shadow War and Zero. Orange reasoned that Zipper Interactive's involvement means all signs would point to a repurposing of SOCOM IP for this one, rather than creating a new title outright. Indeed, when providing me visual examples of certain factions that he observed, Orange used images from SOCOM 3.

"We were all deliberating what sort of game it was similar to, and for the most part, SOCOM and Planetside (another Sony title) were the only names that came out, based on what we have heard and seen," Orange said. The group members saw, or was described, gameplay but could not perform it themselves, which indicated it was in a far less complete stage than other games for which Orange had been in a focus group. All the group saw was a "touched up" version of the trailer that ran at E3, Orange said. Then they were asked questions, mostly regarding the game's story and the scope of its battles.

SOCOM and Planetside were the closest cousins, Orange said, because the game involves "troop like gameplay with a 3rd person view. The game is set following catstrophic events in the near future - "2015 to 2020, around there," said Orange - in which mercenaries, aligned with certain factions, are engaged in relentless secret wars for control of resources.

Orange saw three factions - Americans, based in Alaska ("I can assume a snow level," Orange joked) Europeans and a Middle East faction. Orange provided two .jpgs from SOCOM 3 that were close analogues to the MAG Europe and Middle East factions. If Sony chooses to go forward like this, the obvious Middle East motif could cause some PR problems (although, "It was a black American soldier they showed us, if that makes up for it.") To Anglo players, that kind of garb clearly says "terrorist," and not mercenaries, especially considering the regular fatigues and high-tech suits worn by Americans and Europeans, respectively.

Orange said the presenters focused on two topics: Whether the story justifying the state of current events in the game was believable enough for gamers, and whether the scale of combat was appealing. MAG is promising multiplayer battles of up to 256 participants, broken down into 8-member units aligned to one of two sides. There will be no third-party intercessions on any battles, Orange said.

"For MAG they were all about scale," Orange said. "That was the word they were going for. Massive (as in the scale of the level). With 256 players, they don't want it to be a clusterfuck of deathmatch. They want vast levels where troops can approach from all angles."

At that scale, you can be an independent operator assigned to one unit, knowing none of the others on your side, or you can gather up to seven of your friends and jump in as a squad, with other participants added in if your unit totals less than eight. Obviously, it's not obligating you to find 127 of your closest friends if you want to see the largest scale of combat MAG will offer.

That said, mission objectives for these battles will definitely be in the hands of a few human players. We've reported on the concept of ranks in MAG, where players accumulate experience and ascend a shot-calling ladder within the game, such that they are either grunts, lieutenants, or generals in charge of the whole operation. You'll ascend in rank according to a points accrual system that Orange was able to describe loosely.

"When they were describing it, it kept reminding me of Alterac Valley from World of Warcraft, if you are familiar," Orange said. "What happens is: You get points for contributing with your troop/overall team. If you happen to win or do better than the rest of your team, you get more points. So the more you play, or the more points you get, the higher your rank goes."

Some speculated/wished that at high command levels, the game moved back into some sort of top-down/RTS interface. That sort of happens. "Everyone is in the field," Orange said, "but the person in charge is capable of looking at the map and commanding the overall group or individual troops. He is also capable of things like airstrikes and parachute drops. He could either control and babysit from far back, or jump right into the action [with a weapon himself.]"

Orange didn't like the fact another human player could set all the mission parameters. "Why would I want someone telling me how to play the game?" Orange said. "Perhaps I know more about the certain terrain than they do, should they have the ability to penalize me if I don't listen? Granted, penalizing and kicking were not mentioned but they're always a possiblity.

While Orange did not see individual character classes or their abilities demonstrated, Orange came away with the understanding that all units could be comprised of a single class if they desired. Also, once a character achieved a certain point ranking, certain options became customizable, such as appearance and equipment/weaponry upgrades.

In all, Orange described an appealing game, and it's a logical progression from MMOs set in fantasy contexts. After all, there are, at least for narrative purposes, kingdoms and heads of state in those worlds too, and adventurers set off on individual quests and find combat there. Given a good enough story to set it up, what should preclude that kind of experience in the modern world?

Don't forget that since this is all coming out of a focus test it could be very pie-in-the-sky stuff, though certainly ideas that are tickling Sony's collective grey matter.

Character growth will be accomplished through an advancement tree, which allows players to fine tune their players throughout massive campaigns. "MAG will deliver an intense and long lasting shooter experience," said Beaudoin, who also described the game as "a workout even for the PS3 architecture."

More on this title as it develops. No release date was specified. Gallery below.