Sony has announced that SOCOM 4, the long-awaited true sequel to the SOCOM series, is officially in development and headed for a PS3 release some time this fall.  The announcement was made on the PlayStation Blog by Jeremy Dunham, Sr. community manager for the game’s developer, Zipper Interactive.

While few details are given, the blog announcement does state that, “a militant revolutionary has unexpectedly seized control in an important South Asian country. As the Ops Com, your mission is to command an elite five-man squad charged with stopping his aggressive agenda before it’s too late. In only six days, you must lead your team through a hostile jungle and urban environments against an army of well-armed rebel insurgents that completely outnumber you.” 

There was a time when the announcement of a new SOCOM would have been huge news, but with a slew of mediocre PSP releases and a seriously disappointing first effort on the PS3 with SOCOM: Confrontation, Zipper Interactive may need to win some fans back.  The developer’s experience with creating MAG for the PS3 may help, especially if they are able to bring large-scale multiplayer battles to SOCOM 4.  A cool peripheral might help, too, since the inclusion of a Bluetooth headset with Confrontation boosted sales to about a million copies.  Regardless, there’s almost certainly still a large community looking forward to the next real SOCOM game, and this is sure to delight them.