Sony, as the publisher, and Zipper Interative, as the developer, have announced that this fall will see the launch of SOCOM 4, a new installment in the long running series exclusive to the PlayStation 3 home gaming console. Sony had been talking for some time about a surprise sequel and it seems that the publisher is not worried about getting in the ring with the next Call of Duty from Activision and Treyarch, and with the new Medal of Honor from Electronic Arts to deliver the shooter experience to dominate this year.

Jeremy Dunham, who is the senior community manager at Zipper, has not offered too many details on the experience. It seems that SOCOM 4 will include both a single player component and multiplayer elements, cooperative play not being mentioned. The single player narrative will focus on an unnamed South Asian country, which has been seized by a militant revolutionary.

The players will be the Ops Com leading an elite squad of five operatives in the country in order to stop the militant movement and restore calm. Dunham is saying that “players will also be able to enjoy a 32-person multiplayer mode that boasts more Special Forces units than ever before!”

SOCOM 4 will continue to be squad based and as close to the reality of combat as possible, with tactics being hugely important and with the third person view needed to allow the player to quickly survey the battleground. For the first time in the history of the series, one of the members of the squad will be a woman, known by her nickname, FortyFive.

With several comments on the official announcement talking about the impact SOCOM 4 development and launch will have on the recently released MAG multiplayer squad-based shooter, Jeremy Dunham stepped in to say that Zipper is having two separate teams dealing with the two projects, with MAG getting all the attention it needs. He also revealed that “Plus, we didn’t just start this yesterday, we’ve been working on it for a while.”