Sony Computer Entertainment announced today that MAG has shipped to stores nationwide exclusively for the PlayStation 3.

MAG is set in 2025 when the world’s nations are supposedly at peace, but under the surface a war rages. This “Shadow War” is the secret conflict fought between Private Military Corporations (PMCs) vying for dominance across a global battlefield. As the private military industry starts to flourish, it is dominated mainly by three companies: Valor based in Alaska, Raven headquartered in Vienna, and S.V.E.R. based out of Grozny. It is with selecting an allegiance to one of these three PMCs that the player enters the world of MAG.

MAG’s PMCs are distinct in their own history, personality, and style, including unique soundtracks, user interfaces, character aesthetics, and geographical regions – each PMC has its own “home base” map for each gametype within MAG and is effectively camouflaged within that area. Players choose a character in one of the PMCs and begin to fight for that PMC’s control of the Shadow War. Each battle victory or loss contributes to the PMC’s world standing by gaining or losing contracts, and moving them to the offensive or pulling them back to the defensive. When a PMC earns a contract, a variety of in-game rewards ranging from experience bonuses to upgraded gear, weapons, and vehicles are bestowed upon all players of that particular PMC.

Using MAG’s experience point system, which is vital to progressing players’ characters, players can unlock new items in the skill tree, further specializing themselves on the battlefield. Through incentives of bonus experience points, players are motivated to follow the chain of command and work together to accomplish objectives and advance their PMC within the Shadow War.

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