And unfortunately that list is the problem, because although there are so many potentially great games coming out at one time its very likely that a number of them will not sell up to their potential, and in these economic times could mean either no sequel for great game or worse yet, the closing of a really talented studio.

Gamers and the enthusiast press have been for years complaining that too many games are released during the Christmas season, and this year is possibly the worst offender of that. The reason that publishers do this though is because games released in this season typically sell well enough to justify it. To them its sort of a safe bet that in this period games will sell about enough to cover their costs, just from the impulse sales of people buying presents for other people for the holidays. It is much riskier to sell your game in a down period (summer, spring) where if it isn't good, or doesn't get the buzz it needs, it won't sell nearly as well as during this holiday shopping period. 

But getting back to the real problem with this isn't that as gamers we aren't going to have enough time to play these games, but rather that considering the economy and if things stay as they are it's possible that some really good games this year could slip through the cracks and not sell very well at all. Games that had they been released in a more new game sparse period could have sold a whole lot more, and had a lot more buzz about it. 

If you look at what happened with the original BioShock that's what they did. It was a game that if it had been released in the fall would have sold well, and likely would have flown under the radars of many people, but because it was released in the summer when there weren't as many releases it sold really well. It also sparked a lot of talk amongst players and the press about it, which wouldn't have happened if it had been released later. Much the same could be said about Burnout Paradise which captured a lot of people's attention by holding off its release until after the holiday season.

My hope is that this is the last year we see it this bad, with so many games crammed together, but its also my fear that in order for publishers to stop doing this a lot of really good games and good development studios are going to have to suffer before it does. 

So I look forward to the fall in the hopes that I am terribly wrong.