Too many games too little time

I was on holiday last week and a good job too. As well as Fable 2 - which despite the most useless in-game map ever is a fantastic achievement - I received Fallout 3, Dead Space, Far Cry 2, Quantum of Solace (or COD4 Bond), PES 2009 PC, Disaster: Day of Crisis, Spiderman and a host of me-too Wii sports and DS brain titles. Phew. And this is before LittleBigPlanet, Gears of War 2, WoW: Lich King, Tomb Raider and the rest of the pre-Christmas biggies arrive next month. Now obviously I'm not complaining - there is some good stuff here (Fallout 3, Dead Space and Far Cry 2 in particular). But how do publishers expect gamers to keep up?

Clearly retail trade-in is going to be key here. But wouldn't, say, Dead Space, have done better in August when the release schedule was, erm, dead. Yes, I know the arguments against summer releases - holidays, sunshine etc - but surely a new IP like Dead Space would have benefited from the word of mouth from being one of the few new games available? The chances are it will now get lost in the Fable/Fallout rush. Or maybe I'm wrong? Do you enjoy the rush of new games in October and November or would you rather things were spaced out?