Fans of PlayStation-exclusive title SOCOM have been requesting a series return for years. It’s consistently one of the most demanded franchises and frequently appears in replies to various PlayStation LifeStyle tweets (whether remotely related to SOCOM or not). According to notorious industry insider Tidux, Guerrilla Games currently has a second team developing a multiplayer SOCOM game for the PlayStation
Yeah, Guerrilla Games second team is supposed to be developing MP Socom game. #PS5 https://t.co/3rQPGtSCmc
— Tidux (@Tidux) November 14, 2019
Their tweet is a quote tweet of his own info from 2017 where he said that Sony was looking for the right developer to bring back the SOCOM series, though at that time it was simply internal talks with nothing official set in stone.
Tidux specifically mentions “Guerrilla Games second team” because all signs point to Guerrilla’s primary development focus being a sequel to Horizon Zero Dawn. A recent job listing further increased speculation for a Horizon Zero Dawn 2, and after the massive success of the first game, it seems an obvious choice for the studio’s next big title.
The Killzone developer has seen a lot of changes and evolution since the release of Killzone Shadowfall at the PS4’s launch. Having only developed Killzone titles since 2004, Horizon was seen as a massive change of pace for a studio that had dealt in dark first-person shooters for more than a decade. Most recently, Guerrilla worked with Hideo Kojima and Kojima Productions, lending them the use of the Decima Engine for Death Stranding. Guerrilla’s proven an ability to flex its creative and development muscles outside of the Killzone franchise, and though SOCOM might be a little closer to home than the likes of Horizon, it would still bring some unique challenges.
The last SOCOM game released in 2011 for PS3 from Zipper Interactive, the same developer who had been heading up the franchise since the first release in 2002. SOCOM 4 received mixed reviews and the later closure of Zipper seemed like it dashed all hopes for an opportunity for the series to redeem itself, even if Sony promised that the company “never retires franchises” all the way back in 2012.
Take this with a grain of salt, however. A Guerrilla Games SOCOM title is purely a rumor for now, even if it is coming from an insider with a good track record for getting these kinds of things right. Even Tidux says that the second team at Guerrilla is “supposed to be developing an MP SOCOM game,” stopping just short of outright confirming it. If he’s right though, then Sony will be giving diehard fans something they’ve been wanting for quite some time, and they can finally stop asking for or guessing at a new SOCOM title on our Twitter feed.
