When I was in New York City attending the PlayStation 4 reveal, I started to think a lot, ironically, about PlayStation 3.  Sitting with well-known Sony executive Shuhei Yoshida and picking his brain about PS4, it became clear that the new console was a separate ecosystem.  PS3 games – both digital and retail – won’t work on PS4 , and it seemed like Sony may be slowly closing the book on PlayStation 3. 

Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk

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Beyond: Two Souls

see deal The Last of Us - PlayStation3 $9.99 on Gamestop

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Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness

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Dragon’s Crown

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Dust 514

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But that doesn’t mean that 2013 hasn’t been and won’t continue to be a great year for PlayStation 3 exclusives.  Delving into the depths of IGN’s games database, I found a lot more of them than I expected.  Sure, I’ve heard of all of these games and even previewed and otherwise written about others, but I didn’t quite do the math in my head until I saw it all before me: PS3 gamers have a lot to look forward to in 2013.  Some of these games have already come out; most others are still on the horizon. So let’s jump into the games and see what 2013 has already given us on PlayStation 3, and what it will continue to give us as the year winds on. The Atelier series has been ongoing since the first game – The Alchemist of Salburg – launched in Japan on PlayStation in 1997.  A couple of dozen games later, we find ourselves with Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk, a PS3-exclusive JRPG that just launched this week.  It’s the tenth Atelier game to come to the west and the fourth to find its way to PlayStation 3 (and our review will be live soon on IGN).The Alchemist of Dusk – developed by Japanese studio Gust – is a niche RPG even for JRPG fans, but the Atelier series has found a solid footing in the west in recent years, enough so that these games keep on coming to our shores.  The Atelier games PlayStation fans no doubt have their eyes on are the ones that have (or will shortly) come to Vita in Japan (we need something to play on that little handheld, after all), but in the meantime, The Alchemist of Dusk may just keep you busy. With the exception, perhaps, of The Last of Us In Beyond, players take the role of Jodie Holmes (played by Ellen Page) and take a glimpse into her life ranging from when she’s 8 years old all the way to her early 20’s.  But Holmes isn’t any ordinary girl: she has a dark secret.  She’s accompanied by a spirit of unknown origins named Aidan, and the game seems to revolve around her life with this spirit, including all of the governmental intrigue that such a situation encourages.  Needless to say, Beyond: Two Souls is a game worth keeping an eye on leading up to its release in October. Disgaea D2 – also known as Disgaea Dimensions 2 – was only recently revealed for launch in the west, but Japanese gamers have known about it for some time.  And unlike so many other Japanese role-playing games that find their way west, this game is primed for release in North America and Europe only a few months after it comes out in Japan (it’s not even out in Japan, at the time this article goes live).  Either way, wielding the powerful Disgaea name, A Brighter Darkness brings the strategy-RPG series back to PS3 after some quality handheld distractions. Developed by famed Japanese developer Nippon Ichi Software (NIS), A Brighter Darkness is a direct sequel to the PlayStation 2 game Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, but will look a lot more like the most recent core console release in the series, Disgaea 4.  Naturally, the game will tote the deep strategy mechanics and, perhaps more notably, the series’ humorous dialogue and characters that the franchise is so well-known (and beloved) for. Technically, Dragon’s Crown isn’t exclusive to PlayStation 3.  After all, it’s also coming to PlayStation Vita.  But either way, Dragon’s Crown – which should be released at some point this year – looks like an exceptionally promising old-school inspired romp.  These days, the saga surrounding the game, and in particular who’s publishing it , has overshadowed what otherwise appears to be a slick Vanillaware title that’s totally worth being excited over. With Atlus now leading the helm as funder and publisher, developer Vanillaware has been toiling away on finishing the game.  Yet, we’ve not gone hands-on with it yet and don’t know much about it apart from what we’ve been shown and told so far.  What we know right now is that Dragon’s Crown is a side-scrolling RPG with gorgeous graphics, and better yet, it will support seamless save transferring between Vita and PS3 (and vice-versa), making it most interesting to folks who own both PlayStation devices. When the free-to-play PS3-exclusive first-person shooter Dust 514 was first announced , it sounded like one of the most ridiculously ambitious games ever concocted.  Developed by Icelandic studio CCP, Dust 514 is designed to be the console complement to EVE Online, the outrageously hardcore PC MMO that’s been raging on for nearly a decade.  In particular, what happens in one game is supposed to directly affect the other game, an awesome idea on paper (and perhaps even in execution… we just don’t know).Unfortunately, Dust 514 simply hasn’t launched yet, even with rumors suggesting that it was supposed to originally come out in the fall of 2012 .  As such, Dust 514 has lost some of its gloss and sheen, and the open beta has proven that the game may be way too hardcore and deep for some.  Still, for those willing to invest the appropriate amount of time, Dust 514 may prove to be an incredibly immersive and deep experience.  We’ll find out for sure whenever CCP decides to release it.