2009 was an eventful year for Sony’s PlayStation family with huge price drops, new hardware launches and announcements, and big exclusive games throughout the year. But how was it for you?
The year began with two diametrically opposed game releases: February blessed us with the poignant lyricism of Flower, while simultaneously unleashing the bombastic blitzkrieg of Killzone 2. Sony spread its major exclusives evenly through the year, with inFamous leaping from the rooftop in June, before Uncharted 2 (pictured) wisecracked into October and Ratchet & Clank timecracked into November.
At E3 in June we saw the PSPgo for the first time, months of leaked info and images notwithstanding. Sony also unveiled its motion controller, cunningly disguised as a lady’s bedroom toy. Then at Gamescom in August we saw the PS3 Slim for the first time, months of leaked info and images again notwithstanding.
September saw the introduction of the PS3 Slim along with a drastic price drop all around the world; in Australia this translated into a price plunge, from $699 to $499. Since then, PS3 sales have picked up dramatically. Meanwhile, the digital download-only PSPgo launched in October and, well, no one really noticed.
On the software side, the PSP seems to have undergone something of a renaissance towards the end of the year. Although the first big game was Monster Hunter Freedom Unite in mid-year, recently we’ve seen Dissidia: Final Fantasy, Gran Turismo, GTA Chinatown Wars and LittleBigPlanet, plus the AFL and NRL sims.
The veteran PlayStation 2 kept plugging away. Its price tag fell into almost impulse buy territory at around $100 in some places – pretty soon you’ll see PS2s next to the tabloid mags and candy bars at the checkout of your local supermarket. Oh, and another hundred SingStar games were released for the “party starter” console of choice.
Finally, last month saw the digital TV tuner and PVR box, PlayTV, launch in Australia, along with the ABC’s iView service, allowing you to spend less time using your console to play games.
So, that was 2009 for the PlayStation family. I’m keen to hear what you thought of 2009 from a PlayStation perspective. Were you happy with your PS3/PS2/PSP lot this year? What were the highlights? The lowlights?
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