MAG, Sony’s 256-player military shooter, is out in Australia in just over three weeks. Now that the beta has wrapped up, Sony says they’ll be hosting local servers for Aussie players.
Alon Isaacs, Director of Online Services at Sony Computer Entertainment Australia, confirms the news:
“MAG brings simultaneous 256 player online play to PS3 for the first time. This challenges all elements of the online environment to deliver a responsive and quality experience for players. With 256 players all accessing a game server at the same time, every component of the infrastructure from the server to the database and particularly the network must perform optimally to ensure there are no bottlenecks.
“Like Killzone 2, the global server set will include MAG servers based in Australia, demonstrating Sony Computer Entertainments commitment to do everything it can to ensure that consumers will get an optimal experience when playing this ground breaking title online.”
Excellent! Now, let’s hope 256 people actually buy MAG when it goes on sale in Australia on February 11.
Common Sense
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 4:08 PM“Excellent! Now, let’s hope 256 people actually buy MAG when it goes on sale in Australia on February 11.”
:( Why the pessimism?
*High-five Sony! Well done lads!
Andrew
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 4:10 PMThat’s great news, I think without the dedicated servers this would have been a horrible experience for us Australians. I won’t be picking this us because it just doesn’t look that good to me. But hey, if you’re a fan of online only FPS games then hooray.
Common Sense
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 4:20 PMDid you play in the open Beta? It was excellent, barring the various Beta issues :)
It’s like Red Orchestra, which I know didn’t float everyone’s boat.
warcroft
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 4:13 PM. . . and those 256 people play at the same time.
i R SPaCe CaT
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 4:15 PMbeta was lame.
Julian Avelsgaard
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 4:20 PMI had a great time with the recent beta, at any point there were at least 3000 people per faction playing and a lot of the time I was playing with Americans with no lag.
So there shouldn’t be any issues with matchmaking and whatnot.
Andrew Low
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 9:31 PMNot just Americans. I played with Brits, French and other Euro’s during the beta, and didn’t notice lag at all.
David Brady
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 4:39 PMIs their going to be a demo? i missed the beta (life)
i R TaCo CaT
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 5:00 PMThe demo was awesome.
Julian Avelsgaard
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 11:12 PMNot sure I follow? Previously you said the beta was lame, now you say the demo was awesome?
There was no demo for MAG, there was only closed beta and the open, public beta.
Zwa
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 5:16 PMThis actually looks pretty interesting. It’s a shame I have a violent alergic reaction to playing FPS with anything other than a mouse&keyboard.
Cerzel
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 5:44 PMI get the feeling that there’ll only need to be one Australian server, given how many of us are likely to be on at any given time. The biggest problem for us is how many people we can get to play.
oggob
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 6:11 PM+1 for purchase… no concerns from the Beta, local server is just the icing!!!
Michael Barnes
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 7:02 PMim interested but sorry im not paying full price ($95) for a multiplayer game. They should do what they did with Warhawk which was something like $60 with a headset.
magaa
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 7:25 PMI think the MAG beta was really boring.The real game will be no different. It’s senseless. Aiming on the controllers is extremely difficult and frustrating. FPS shooters always better with the mouse.(PC)
MAG is no better than BF2142 etc MW2.
MAG is something only for gamers who enjoy sadistic boring games like GTA4. I see no merit in the game itself, it is derivative and simply just unoriginal.
It’s the same thing, developers need to stop making bad games like Dark Void also etc. BTW the game is an experimental game in other words something like an amateur project, so the young guys can get experience working in FPS projects. Everyone had to start working somewhere right?
1ownj00
Monday, February 1, 2010 at 12:49 AMController needs more hand eye coordination and therefore you need more skills then mouse+kb (crutch for noobs)
If one doesn’t own console and play FPS games they really shouldn’t be giving any opinions. If you are getting owned in console FPS you need to get better or quit. We won’t miss you.
Chris Ryan
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 7:26 PMI agree- loved the beta for the short time I played it, also didnt have too much trouble with lag against the Yanks- altho I really did notice how much more high-rankers they had, and kicked our first-timers’ arses as a result. Will be nice even just to play on something other than the two beta maps. Bring on 256player!
Justin Robson
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 7:45 PMIf MAG gets decent reviews AFTER it’s released, I will now consider it thanks to this… haven’t heard too many good things from the beta, but I am looking into playing more online FPS… Battlefield BC2 is going to be tough to beat though, methinks.
Ad
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 8:00 PMMaybe I’ve been lucky, but I’ve never encounted lag issues playing US/European servers for KZ2 or the MAG beta. The interwebs are getting better…
plmko
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 10:57 PMThe part of it is that its FREE!.
Wooktree
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 11:42 PMThat’s the kicker. They can put aussie servers up for a free online service, yet IW can’t do the same for a paid one with 10x less players in each game. OH IW, how you failed us all.
Joseph
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 12:11 AMPlease let DICE follow suit with allowing Aussie servers for BF:BC2. Only certain companies they choose can host and rent out servers rite?
Zwa
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 8:50 AMMy impression is that companies can apply for the privilege to host (and rent out) those servers and as long as they’re somewhat reputable will be given the tools. We’ll probably see the usual suspects (internode, gamespace, gamearena, etc.) pop up with their own servers.