The PS3‘s massive, ever-changing global war just got bigger! Starting today our “Escalation Add-on Pack” introduces the exciting three-faction “Escalation” game mode that throws Raven, SVER and Valor into simultaneous battle on three brand new maps. As an added bonus, Escalation owners also get their hands on nine exclusive new weapons — including assault rifles, sniper rifles, and machine guns! The best part? All this can be yours for the low, low price of €7.99.

Gamers that play any of our add-on packs between November 2 and November 14 get additional XP bonuses. Specifically, anyone who plays Interdiction or Escalation within that timeframe earns a +200% bonus with every finished match. We’re also including an all-around +100% bonus for playing any MAG mode within the same time frame. In other words, it’s going to be a MAG XP frenzy!

One last thing we want to mention before we go, is how Escalation fits into MAG’s storyline. Followers of the game’s mythos have been asking us, and it goes a little something like this:

“The Neuvonics Corporation has collapsed in the wake of rapid expansion and spending on cutting-edge energy facilities around the world. Three of their most prized investments are up for grabs after on-site personnel walked out late last week. It stands to reason that the security contract for these facilities will go to the company who possesses them, which is why Valor, Raven and SVER operatives are currently en route.
Once the dust settles, if their energy production remains intact, the PMC in control stands to make a fortune from these contracts in the years to come.”

For additional details regarding Escalation’s gameplay, including a detailed description of the game mode itself and the maps within, check our list of links below. Enjoy the new content!

• MAG Escalation Announcement (w/ Weapons)
• Escalation Map Video Flythroughs
• Escalation: A Closer Look

Want to talk about it? Visit our official MAG forums by clicking this link and discuss Escalation with your fellow fans!

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This past summer, many of you took part in our latest MAG Beta program to help us test out a number of new features slated for our recently released update, MAG 2.0, and future DLC. Thanks to your devotion, we gathered a surplus of fantastic data that allowed us to make MAG a better game… and we’re not done yet!

Though the MAG 2.0 patch has been available since the end of September, the DLC portion of the beta has remained unreleased — but not for too much longer. Starting on the 3rd of November, our three faction gunplay whirlwind, the “Escalation” Add-on Pack, will be available for download from the PlayStation Store for €7.99/£6.29!

If you didn’t get a chance to play it in our MAG Beta, the Escalation add-on supports up to 96 players, or one 32-man platoon for each PMC, as a separate in-game mode that pits the forces of Raven, SVER, and Valor against each other at the same time. The aspirations for each PMC is to earn the requisite number of points before time runs out or, if time does expire, to have the most points overall. Whichever team meets this goal wins the map and additional Shadow War points.

Escalation gameplay is set up in two phases: For phase one, all three teams battle to hold the map’s A, B and C objectives — but when any of the three PMCs gains control of two of the three objectives, phase two begins. In this second phase, the original three objectives are locked and a new fourth objective (D) opens up. Now, the PMC that forced the phase shift must defend objective D against both attacking groups as long as possible; if D is lost, then play reverts back to phase one again and the war continues on until we have a winner or time runs out.

As beta players have already seen, Escalation offers three completely different environments (maps) to the MAG universe, including the volcanic beaches “Isla de Magma,” the mountainous “Silverback Ridge,” and the desert wasteland of “Radiant Barrens.” As an added bonus, our new add-on pack isn’t just made up of new maps – there are also nine previously-unavailable weapons we’re throwing into the mix too:

Raven: Gotha Elite (Assault Rifle) | KP21 (Machine Gun) | Kinmark SRS (Sniper Rifle)
SVER: Tamsen MK2 (Assault Rifle | Ariet SFW (Machine Gun) | Rubakho SVR (Sniper Rifle)
Valor: M31 CIR (Assault Rifle) | M245 (Machine Gun) | Sentinel M421 (Sniper Rifle)

If this sounds like your brand of DLC fun, we’ll see you again on the 3rd of November!

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We’ve long said that MAG is an evolving game, one that changes and improves over time thanks in very large part to your input. The most direct example of this is our Influence MAG program, a player-driven design decision where you can vote on various MAG game elements and tell us exactly what you want.

Our first Influence MAG effort generated a ton of interest from fans when we asked if you wanted to change the time limit for Domination matches. You voted with a resounding “No!“, so we kept the timer clocked at 30 minutes, just as you told us to.

This time around we offer another simple question:

Should leaving an in-progress game count as a loss on your record?

Now, to be clear on what you’re voting on, this is a measure to combat people who would otherwise “bail out” right before the end of a game so that they don’t lose the round. Keep in mind that if we were to implement this system, it would also affect the Win/Loss records of people who accidentally disconnect from games as well.

Now that you’re informed of what you’re voting on, here’s the fine print:

• The winning answer must have 60% of the overall vote for two-point questions.
• The winning answer must have 55% of the overall vote for three-point questions.
• If no answer has the required % then there is no status change.

To vote, simply head to the MAG blog and vote in our official poll. It will remain open until 11:59pm Pacific Time on August 10, 2010. Once the poll ends, we’ll tally up the results and modify the game accordingly sometime thereafter.

So there you have it. Should disconnects count as an automatic loss or not? It’s completely up to you.

Let your voice be heard and vote right now!

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If you consider yourself the type of person who likes getting new video game features for free, then our next MAG patch – version 1.07, due in early August – is definitely something for you.

Yes friends, in just over a week from now, players will be treated to a number of features that you’ve been asking us for all summer in addition to a few surprises. Like what, you ask? Like these:

• A new “Happy Hour” Double XP bonus that’s applied to the first hour of any player’s gameplay session in a 24-hour period.
• Suppression will join Sabotage as a “Faction Neutral” gameplay mode, allowing any PMC to battle each other on any Suppression map.
• Faster download and patching code that allows us to update MAG with more content and bigger file sizes in a speedier way.
• Redesigned versions of the Flores Basin (Raven) and Alyeska Terminus (Valor) Domination maps that include new obstacles and repaired exploits.
• New lighting effects for more attractive and realistic environments.
• Various fixes to address bugs or glitches to improve MAG’s overall performance.

Of course, there are a number of other additions and fixes coming with MAG v1.07, but the points listed above should whet your appetites while you wait for the full list of changes closer to the update.

Watch this space for patch details next week and, as always, let us know what you think of these modifications on our official forums.

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It’s been almost six months since our massive online shooter, MAG, was released to stores all over the world, and the team here at Zipper Interactive is celebrating by giving something back to fans who continue to support our game and its community.

That “something” we’re passing along is also something that many of you have been asking us for with great enthusiasm for months. And so, it is with great pleasure, that I announce that starting today — right this moment in fact — that all maps in our “Sabotage” game mode are going “Faction Neutral!” If you ever wanted to play against the Valor PMC as a member of the competing Raven Industries on a map that belonged to the third faction, SVER, that option is now yours! We’d like to think of it as a way to experience existing content in an all-new way, and we hope you feel the same.

The best part? You don’t have to download a thing to do it. We’ve already set everything up so that all you have to do is log on to the game, select the Sabotage game mode with whatever your PMC of choice may be, and have fun. It’s just that simple.

We hope you enjoy this gift to you as much as we enjoy giving it, and once again, want to thank each and every one of you who have supported MAG in its first half-year. Hopefully, you’ll like what we have in store for the second-half just as much.

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