One of the themes this month in gaming news seems to be the constant reminder to gamers by the press about how all the anticipated games they’re looking forward to this fall are now to be pushed back to 2010 for release. Just to name a scant few out of the many that have already been delayed include Bioshock 2, the next Splinter Cell, almost every big name title that isn’t a yearly sequel (Madden, Guitar Hero, Call of Duty) seems to be making the shuffle for quality/polish reasons.

The press seems more worried about this prospect than the gamers but why? Aren’t these the same gaming journalists that complain that the holiday season is too packed with games and there’s “Too much to play!” every Christmas? Weren’t they also the ones delighted that this past spring was chock full of meaty and polished hardcore titles like Street Fighter IV, Resident Evil 5 and a load of other titles with merit?

Why such a panic over this? Many gaming podcasts seem to have “Whatchu been playing?” segments in which the hosts go on about playing games in their backlog and going back to old favorites longer than they discuss the current new hot game of the month. So what’s the problem if not every year can be “BEST YEAR FOR GAMES EVER AAA” in your end of the year writeup? – The Ben