Is SOCOM Being Shut Down by Sony?

<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><img class&equals;" wp-image-9344 aligncenter" style&equals;"color&colon; &num;333333&semi; font-style&colon; normal&semi; line-height&colon; 21px&semi;" title&equals;"257px-SOCOM&lowbar;4" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2012&sol;03&sol;06225447&sol;257px-SOCOM&lowbar;41&period;png" alt&equals;"Socom being shutdown by Sony" width&equals;"206" height&equals;"238" &sol;>The first-party studio&comma; <em>Z<&sol;em><em>ipper Inter<&sol;em><em>active<&sol;em>&comma; which was acquired by Sony in 2006 seems to be in danger of being shut down&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; left&semi;"><em>Zipper Interactive<&sol;em> is the studio behind the popular <em>SOCOM<&sol;em> fps series&period;  It had also seen some success with games such as <em>Mechwarrior 3<&sol;em> and <em>Crimson Skies<&sol;em> before joining with Sony&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; left&semi;">Sony has made no comment as to whether or not this is an impending decision or speculation due to their policy against discussing rumors or speculation&period; Despite this&comma; sources say that Zipper is in the process of canceling projects and laying off employees which&comma; due to the number of layoffs&comma; indicate the shut-down of the studio&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; left&semi;">This shutdown could be a result of the failure of some of it&&num;8217&semi;s latest projects&comma; such as <em>MAG&comma;<&sol;em> on the PS3&comma; seeing as it was an integral part of Sony during the PS2 era&period;  Couple this with the bad luck from the latest<em> SOCOM<&sol;em> title being released in the middle of the 2011 PS3 downtime&comma; the shutdown is no surprise seeing as the studio is hanging on by a thread&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; left&semi;">Despite these reasons&comma; with no confirmation from Sony&comma; this remains only speculation&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;