SOCOM II Interview

HomeLAN chats with Zipper's creative director David Sears about SOCOM II, the sequel to their popular military multiplayer shooter:

HomeLAN - First, how do you feel about the reaction that SOCOM received from players and game critics when it was released last year?

David Sears - I am totally humbled, thankful and awed. As a designer, you always want to make compelling games that people enjoy playing and of course you want acclaim by the press. But watching a whole community form around your game is another experience entirely, not one that you typically expect. Many great games may not become hits so to have been so well received is a tremendous honor.

Not long after SOCOM shipped, I was at a game store and saw two kids arguing over who should get to take home the last copy of SOCOM. This was the first time SOCOM's popularity seemed real to me. Then I thought "Oh. Wow. Now we have to go make another, better SOCOM so we don't let these guys down." That's a lot of responsibility.