When Sony closed the doors to SOCOM and MAG developer Zipper Interactive most fans of felt that this was the end for those two somewhat beloved franchises. SOCOM, a longstanding staple of the PS2 online experience, floundered in recent years amongst the big budget shooters like Call of Duty. And then, just last year, the title’s fourth numbered iteration, failed to make the splash Zipper hoped, and thus they were closed down.
But a closure of a studio in Sony’s mind doesn’t necessarily mean the end of a franchise. As Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida explains, there might still be a chance for SOCOM somewhere down the road.
Essentially what Yoshida is trying to say is that fans of SOCOM, of which there are still quite a few, should not give up hope that their franchise will never see the light of day again. It’s pretty common in today’s video game market for another developer to take the reigns of a series and give it a fresh new perspective. Take for example, Sly Cooper 4, which is being developed by Sanzaru Games, the same folks who brought us the Sly Cooper HD Collection.
“It’s not done. We never definitely retire any franchise. It’s sometimes great to have a fresh look at the classics that we have. We are launching a new Sly Cooper game this year after so many years. Never say never. I feel sorry for people who are longtime SOCOM fans, and there are many people who still play SOCOM 1 and SOCOM 2, especially those seem to be their favorites.”
In an ideal world, a new fledgling developer would step in to develop an HD collection of at least the first two SOCOM games – an idea we’ve been tossing around since before the release of SOCOM 4 – and the success of that collection would determine whether or not they could continue the franchise. Yoshida still seems to be pretty reserved about the idea, though, and is more so trying to keep fans interests going without wanting to crush any hopes and dreams.
Sly Cooper continued because it was still a successful franchise, but the developer who originally worked on it (Sucker Punch) moved on to develop inFAMOUS. This Zipper closure is a completely different circumstance.
Would you like to see the SOCOM franchise continue with a different developer? Should an HD collection of the past games come first?
Source: MP1st
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It’s called Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, not Sly Cooper 4. And the Sly Cooper HD Collection is actually called The Sly Collection. Couldn’t stand for those names to be butchered.
Thats what i have been saying all along. just remake 1 and 2 into 1 game. keep the third person and maybe add a few match types. focus on clans.
Great news. I’ll take Socom 2 HD or Confrontation 2. Confrontation was actually a really good game after all the patches.
http://ir.gl/f9550f
BEEN A SOCOM FAN SINCE SOCOM 1 AND I CAN TELL YOU, US SOCOM FANS STAY TRUE, AND WERE DESPERATELY WAITING ON THE NEXT GAME TO BE DEVELOPED. SONY PLEASE SAVE US………
Been a massive socom fan since socom 1 love the game. Still stuck on confrontation as I will not play the new one.. Respawn and double weapons. Stupid noises.. I loved socom 1 not 2 as I felt after 1 people took a few to many bullets. Loved the introduction of game mode convoy!!. Would love to see that again. And the choice to have vehicles on maps or not… Socom is the greatest game ever built.