Microsoft has confirmed that Crackdown 2 will be released in the first half of 2010, adding another big videogame name to the already pretty full schedule for the period, which includes titles like God of War III, Heavy Rain and possibly Starcraft II. It will be interesting to see how Crackdown 2 manages to perform in such an environment.

Appearing on the podcast of Larry Hryb, also known as Major Nelson, Aaron Greenberg, who is the director of programming at Xbox Live, said that “Starting in January, we have an AAA exclusive title pretty much every month for the first half of the year. You got Mass Effect 2, you got Splinter Cell, you got Alan Wake, you got Crackdown 2.”

Before this set of remarks, the game was only said to appear at some point in 2010 and most people believed that Microsoft was lining up the release for the fall season, especially considering that this is an exclusive for the Xbox 360.

Crackdown 2 is being developed by Ruffian Games, a studio that has taken over from Realtime Worlds, which is at the moment busy with making the All Points Bulletin MMO. The game is set to keep the open world structure of the first one but will enhance all other aspects.

The graphics take advantage of all the power of the Microsoft home console, the enemies that the player faces will be tougher and even able to follow the main protagonist to the rooftops where he was previously safe, and the overall story arc will be more interesting.

Ruffian Games is also set to offer full four-player cooperative play throughout the single player element of Crackdown 2, with the difficulty level ramping up as more players join in the experience. The versus multiplayer experience will also handle up to 16 players as they face each other in a variety of game modes.