Crackdown 2 due in first half of 2010

It was already clear that the early part of 2010 will have no shortage of big-name releases, and Xbox 360 director of product management Aaron Greenberg just dropped another long-awaited game on the ever-growing pile. In an appearance on Xbox Live, programming director Larry Hryb's Major Nelson podcast, Greenberg included Crackdown 2 on a list of Xbox 360 exclusives due out by July.

"Starting in January, we have a AAA-exclusive title pretty much every month for the first half of the year," Greenberg said. "You got Mass Effect 2, you got Splinter Cell, you got Alan Wake, you got Crackdown 2."

Previously, Crackdown 2 had only been tagged with a vague 2010 release window. Ruffian Games is creating the open-world sequel, taking over for original developer Realtime Worlds. The team at Ruffian is taking one of the original game's biggest strengths--online cooperative play throughout the campaign--and expanding it to support four players. Crackdown 2 will also feature competitive multiplayer modes for up to 16 gamers.

For more on Crackdown 2, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.