I'll never understand it either.  Releasing your big projects the same time as highly hyped and anticapted best sellers is ridiculous.  I'd see Halo and GTA IV, and on those two alone plan on a summer release.

Similar to the movie business back in the day.  It used to be summer was a deadtime for movies, and supposedly Star Wars turned that around with its huge success and a late May release date.

It is odd.  Last year saw Ghost Recon and Oblivion do very well on the 360.

This year Crackdown, GRAW 2 and soon Forza 2 will do very well this spring.  Then we have a summer drought -- Madden and The Darkness basically.

Oh well... Maybe someday they will learn.

Movies are starting to do the same thing now too.

Look at the movies coming out this summer--I want to see way more just this summer than I wanted to all of the last few years.  With the cost of tickets and stuff though, not many people can see them all.

I wonder how many people did not see Pirates 3 because they just spent at least $9 per person to see Shrek 3 or Spider-man 3 the week before, which definitely hurt their sales and stopped the march to $200 million on the four day weekend for Pirates 3.

Of course, after the summer there isn't much coming out that I want to see.

Overlord is due out at the end of June.  1up was talking about it and they compared it to Pikmin with a zanning sense of humor -- sorta like Kabuto Giant or whatever (Picky played it).

It is a semi RTS where you send out your demons to take over cities.  As they burn down homes they rampage through them and steal the pots and pans and start to wear them as armor.  If the demon kills a cook, he puts on the cook hat, if it kills a sheep it makes a sweater or something like that.  Sounds like a lot of fun and has me looking forward to it.

It was Giants: Citizen Kabuto.

Overlord Demo is now up on the Xbox Live Marketplace.

www.majornelson.com/.../demo-overlord.aspx

Apparently the Overlord demo is going over well.  People have been giving it praise: www.evilavatar.com/.../showthread.php

Quotes:

The demo, whilst being excellent, does not do justice to the full title.

Trust me, this game is many different variations on the theme of excellent.

Never heard of the developmet house, but Codemasters have got themselves another winner.

Good year for them.

And

Also just finished the demo.

Welp, That game's going on the "Buy!" list. Its just hilarious, now to decide, PC or 360. Hummm.

It is developed by a Dutch team.

"There's only two things I hate in this world: people who are intolerant of other people's cultures and the Dutch."

Overlord Demo review: If the final game is on the same wavelength as the demo, Overlord will become an overnight hit for the Xbox 360. Not only is Overlord tongue-in-cheek funny, but it also sports a unique gameplay style that works nearly flawlessly. Although inactive for the demo, Overlord also features multiplayer action, which should make the final version even more of a blast.

source: previews.teamxbox.com/.../p2

Another game I have to watch out for: Turning Point: Fall of Liberty due out Q4 2007 -- hopefully it gets delayed.

A FPS that tries to redo World War II as if the *** invaded the US and now we have to kick them out.

I am not tired of WWII like some people as long as the games are good.

Ubisoft Release list:

September:

* Dark Messiah: Elements - 7th September (Xbox 360)

* Settlers VI - 7th September (PC)

* Brothers In Arms: Double Time - 21st September (Wii)

October:

* Naruto: Rise of a Ninja - 19th October (Xbox 360)

November:

* Assassin's Creed - 9th November (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

* Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway - 16th November (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

* Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 - 16th November (Wii, DS)

* Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction - 16th November (PC, Xbox 360)

* Haze - 23rd November (PS3)

* Haze - 30th November (PC, Xbox 360)

Source: www.eurogamer.net/article.php

Funny is Haze was advertised as a PS3 exclusive -- wonder if this is a mistake or a 1 week exclsuive deal.  

Oh yeah forgot.

Valve's: Left 4 Dead

Team Fortress 2

Half Life 2

HL: 2 EP1/EP2