Sorry Pachter and Thom, you're completely off the mark.

I bought three games last Christmas season. Rock Band, Mass Effect, and Orange Box. I didn't buy Assassin'c Creed, Guitar Hero 3, Ratchet & Clank, Super Mario Galaxy, or UT3.

I *DID* buy GTA4 in the spring.

This year, I sold my old RB stuff and bought RB2. Other than that, I bought Fallout 3 and Fable 2. I don't think I'll be buying Brother In Arm, Deadspace, Left4Dead, Lego Batman, Saints Row 2, Far Cry, Gears of War 2, Scene It 2, or Rise of the Argonauts.

Oh... and I'll be buying Animal Crossing. As a gift.

The point being, I don't have the time and money to buy all the games that publishers jam into a 2 or 3 month period. If there was one great game coming out every 6 weeks or so I'd be more likely to purchase more games. The "double sales" theory simply doesn't hold water. This year's glut started out in late August with Mercenaries 2 and there was pretty much one or two games every week from then til mid-December. No way I'll be buying a lot of those.

I have an ongoing joke w/ my friends about how *NO GOOD GAMES* should come out in 2009 so that we can catch up on 2007 and 2008.

The only people that the "Christmas sales" theory holds up with are the type of gift-givers who don't know all that much about what they're buying for people. Stereotypical translation: Moms.

And game developers/publishers honestly think we should care when they whine about the used game market (you know, the market that books, music, and movies have had for decades and you don't hear them whining about it).

If you don't want your great games to fill the bargain bin and the "Used Games" shelves... try releasing them in March every once in a while. See GTA and Oblivion as examples of how to do it right. Both of those games I snatched up immediately and spent a ton of time on because there wasn't really anything else coming out any time near the release date of those two games.

It's really not that complicated folks.