After 8 years of solid work, the team behind SOCOM and MAG, Zipper Interactive, has been shut down by Sony. According to Game Informer, the closure of the studio was the result of a “normal cycle of resource re-alignment” within Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios. Game Informer reports that the studio had 80 employees, all of whom are now jobless. So it looks like the rumor was true.
There were some signs of turbulence when Zipper had to layoff an unknown number of employees after the release of SOCOM 4. But all in all, the team really didn’t do a bad job making their games. I can understand how they’d have been overshadowed by the Call of Duty and Battlefield franchises but this seems a little disappointing to me. It wasn’t really their fault that this happened, and from what I can tell, they made some pretty solid titles, especially recently. Though it has been confirmed that their online titles will receive continued support, it’s gonna be sad to see more game developers going jobless. All these people getting fired will likely fuel the resurgence in indie development that we’ve been seeing in recent years.
Source: Game Informer
2 comments on this post.
Seth, Roper, and the crew got dumped by Sony….the hack blackout really killed this game in my opinion. The MP aspect is huge for Zipper aznd it was crushed due to the PSN outage. Dont know what to do to fill my SOCOM void inthe future…..help Slant Six…
It really sucks that this had to happen. Zipper definitely didn’t deserve what they got, but Sony really loves to fire people, especially these days since they’ve been losing money. It’s Sony’s fault though, and it doesn’t even have to do with the games industry for the most part.