178w ago - Update: Per Blog.MAG.com, you'll be able to download the client in North America starting tomorrow, December 22!

Additionally, PS3 owners in Asia can start downloading the file on December 25, while the European store will make it available on January 4.

Today Sr. Zipper Interactive Community Manager Jeremy Dunham has announced that MAG for PlayStation 3 has gone gold, and that the PS3 Beta will be open for everyone soon.

To quote: On behalf of everyone at Zipper Interactive, I'm proud to announce that following our successful series of beta programs this past fall, our 256-player first-person shooting spectacular, MAG, has gone gold in North America, Japan, Korea, and the rest of Asia.

It is now headed off to manufacturing so that the game can make it from store shelves to PlayStation 3s all over the world. Expect MAG to drop on January 26 in North America and Asia, January 28 in Japan, and January 29 in Korea.

The European discs are finishing up final quality assurance rounds right now and we expect to see those editions go gold sometime in the next few weeks.

We realize that the wait is still more than a month...

180w ago - Zipper Interactive's Sr. Community Manager Jeremy Dunham has posted up the official MAG PS3 box art today on the PlayStation Blog alongside some statistics from the MAG Beta.

To quote: We've been exceedingly grateful to those of you who participated in our MAG beta tests over the last several months and couldn't be happier with how everything turned out.

Naturally, with the end of our beta cycle, comes the countdown to our final release on January 26, and what better way to start that countdown than to reveal the final, "official" box art that you'll find in the United States and Canada. Have a gander!

Pretty sweet isn't it? Yeah, we like it too.

Now that you know what to look for in the future, let's go back to the past for a moment and talk about some interesting information we gathered over the last month.

• More than 42,000 matches were played over the course of the full public beta (August 17 - December 5).
• During October's beta period alone nearly 534,000+ miles were traveled in-game by MAG players each week.
• During the final month of the Beta 4 and 4.5 periods (November 9 - December 5):

Of the more than 65,000 players that logged on, 17,000 of them qualified for Squad Leader, 3500 people qualified...

181w ago - It's finally coming to an end... today Zipper Interactive's Sr. Community Manager Jeremy Dunham has announced that the MAG PS3 Beta will be closing this Friday with a Zipper Challenge.

To quote: There are only a few days left before our MAG beta comes to an end this Saturday at Midnight, but we don't want our heavily-armed, highly-aggressive fat lady to sing until you've had a chance to give our game a go for yourself.

That's why we've decided to put together a little challenge to any and all MAG beta testers: We dare you to beat Zipper at our own game!

This Friday evening on December 4, multiple Zipper squads will be waiting for you on the MAG servers representing all three of the game's PMC Factions (Raven, S.V.E.R., and Valor). All you have to do is log on when the time is right, join a queue, and look for players with the distinguishable Zipper clan moniker to see if you have what it takes to beat us -- it's that simple.

If you aren't a member of the MAG beta quite yet, don't worry -- just head on over to our MAG Beta sign-up page to get a key of your very own so that you too can have an early glimpse at what 256-player mayhem is all about. Sign up for your free key now, and you're...

184w ago - Zipper Interactive Sr. Community Manager Jeremy Dunham has officially announced today that their Massive Action Game (MAG) Beta 4 for Sony's PS3 console starts today.

To quote: I wanted to share some news regarding our latest MAG beta program that we're kicking off right now. Starting today, we've officially moved into our next Beta phase - Beta 4.

We've made more than 6,000 changes from our last phase to Beta 4, not the least of which include an increased level cap from 40 to 60, a retooled skill tree and experience curve, and an improved ranking system - all based on the feedback from our diligent testing crew.

We've also introduced two new major features to Beta 4. We've implemented the oft-asked about "proximity chat" feature that allows you to hear enemies communicating as you get closer, or trash talk them yourself as you punch 'em full of lead.

We've also introduced Shadow War bonuses. Depending on which PMCs are leading in the number of contracts owned, the entire PMC will earn different bonuses based on gametype. Leading in Sabotage adds experience points, leading in Acquisition increases leadership aura distance, and leading in Domination decreases tactical strike cooldown time.

Other new additions to Beta 4 include improvements...

187w ago - SCEA's Director of Development Seth Luisi has announced today that the MAG PS3 Public Beta update v1.30 is now available.

To quote: This morning we released a new MAG Public Beta update. The new MAG Public Beta update includes a new PSN Title update (version 1.30) and new game data.

This new MAG Public Beta release includes over 8,000 updates and fixes, too many to list in detail. You can start downloading it now to have it ready for when the servers open at 10:00 a.m. PDT.

Some of the patch highlights are:

• Framerate improvements in all environments
• Vote/ Kick implemented
• Art and lighting updates to all levels
• Art updates to weapons, vehicles and objects
• Animation improvement and updates
• Client patching improvements
• Design tuning on all environments (attacker/defender, out of bounds, sightlines, routing...)
• Tuned all skills (skill point expense, skill trees, skill effects)
• Tuning pass on experience rewarded for all actions (resuscitate, heal other, destroy turret, destroy motor pool....)
• Tuning pass on player & leadership experience progressions
• Full audio tuning pass
• Bunker, APC, and Spawn camera adjustments
• Lowered initial spawn times...