day one for me

+1  I think this will be a game that people will still be playing 2 years from now.  This game won't flop simply because it doesn't have a single-player campaign.  Warhawk didn't have a single-player campaign and I still play it daily, 28 months after it came out.

SOCOM has a pretty big dedicated online community. It will easily sell 1m without much advertisement, and the hardcore SOCOM players will be playing MAG for years.

Warhawk had the community to itself, more or less. MAG will face much more competition. It's a new IP. I expect it to fly under a lot of people's radar. Being massively multiplayer is one thing. There's a lot of other things it has to get right in order to remain on a lot of people's wish list. Here's hoping, anyway.

 +2  MAG is great, I played a lot during the closed beta. Right now it sits at over 100k preorders I think... the biggest indicator of success will be this upcoming open beta period - 1/04 through 1/10. Anyone can currently pre-DL the client on PSN, beta starts the 4th. Sony still has plenty of time to use the beta publicity and start advertising to ge the word out. They are probably hoping for positive journalism feedback to help fuel the planned marketing campaign, though that is just speculation on my part.

 If during that week it gets a lot of positive hype, and the preorders skyrocket, it could be a fairly big success. The game definatly has potential, its certainly the best console FPS I have played. Unlike MW2 and its super arcade action and 1000 gimmicks, MAG actualy has like... battles that flow, flanking means something other than you died and got plopped behind the enemy, and there is so much room for strategic action if you play with a clan.

MAG will definatly be the most fun, for those who hook up with an organized squad as opposed those who just fly solo. Not that its not a fun game solo, its still awesome - but its full potential isnt unlocked until you at least have a squad of 8 to work as a team, especially on the 256 player modes.

Same as Socom I think.

It will be huge to start, but then it will calm down a bit; but it will always have a following and you will never have trouble finding an online match.

That's how I see it playing out. I could see it doing 1.5 or 2 million sales and there will probably be 50-100 thousand people playing online at any given time.

I disagree - I believe most Socom players will hate MAG because it's so much more mainstream than Socom.

The beta's going public on Jan4th giving anyone who wants a chance to try it out. Getting a chance to experience the game might get some to pull away from other games they're currently playing.

MAG is going to fit into the puzzle like every other new IP has to:

1) It all starts with the Publisher making sure the game is noticed.
2) Good Reviews for the more research driven buyers.
3) Word of mouth.

Does this answer your question? I'm getting the game ASAP btw.

Personally, I'm not a huge FPS fan even though I fall into the mainstream demographic for it. However, having said that I do own a few FPS titles, mostly for my 360, however after purchasing MW2 for my PS3 I will say that MAG will be a day one purchase for me as I find the controller for the PS3 to be (to me anyhow) much more FPS-friendly.

(Plus I need something to tide me over until Heavy Rain, WKC and FF13 come out)