While 2009 was a great year for the PlayStation 3, 2010 is practically guaranteed to be its biggest yet. A simple look at the games library tells you that this'll be a banner year for the system. From God of War III to Gran Turismo 5 to The Last Guardian to Heavy Rain, the first-party lineup for this year is nothing short of incredible, but that's only the start of it. When you start adding in the third-party titles like Final Fantasy XIII, Max Payne 3, BioShock 2 and countless others, well, you should get started on some loan paperwork right now because your bank account will be hurting by year's end.
The system is still riding high on its price drop from this past fall, putting up huge numbers during the holidays and bringing tons of new gamers into the fold. The PlayStation Network has gotten bigger and bigger, and though the release schedule for 2010 is fairly quiet so far, we expect this year to be even bigger on that front.
Of course, Sony's other big hardware push for the year is the Motion Controller (which may or may not see a name change before it's released). Now slated to hit shelves in the fall, the controller allows for one-to-one motion input on the screen and features an analog stick and other buttons. The prototype demo shown at last year's E3 certainly made it look as if the technology provides very responsive input, but we're still skeptical about whether or not its coupling with software will make us want to ditch our Dual Shock 3s.
What's curious at the moment is that while Sony has a ton of stuff lined up for the first half of the year, including MAG, God of War III, Heavy Rain, White Knight Chronicles, Gran Turismo 5 (hopefully) and more, we don't really know what to expect from the important fall and holiday shopping seasons. The Last Guardian seems like a likely late-2010 release, but Sony hasn't really set any firm dates on a lot of other content. Everyone has been talking about a new Twisted Metal game for some time now, and we expect that, if it's actually in production, we'll see the announcement at this year's E3 and its release later this year.
We'll probably also see announcements for the next Resistance and Infamous titles at E3, though they may just be short teaser clips. As for the rest of the show, we're scratching our heads at this point, but it's still a good ways out.
Really, Sony has the first half of the year locked down very, very well, thanks to fantastic releases from both first- and third-party studios. The question mark is for the second half of the year, but if Sony can perform a repeat of the first half of 2010 in the second bit, we're in for one hell of a calendar year on the PlayStation 3.
So let's take a closer look at some of the biggest games heading to PlayStation platforms in 2010. First, we'll preview the PS3 lineup. And keep reading for an in-depth look at what's in store for the PSP, too.
Head to the next page to see the PS3 games we're anticipating most in 2010 >>
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