Speaking exclusively to Gamesindustry.biz, Ubisoft Game Designer Michael de Plater acknowledges that the festive holiday season is a “brutal” duration to release new IPs and that many good games could fall wayside as a result.

“It’s a bit tough to launch a new IP exactly at Christmas when you’re head-to-head with blockbuster sequels. It’s interesting to see a number of big titles, like Heavy Rain, being targeted at 2010 to avoid the Christmas rush,” he explained. “And Ubisoft’s got Ruse coming out in 2010. Even God of War 3’s in 2010, that’s how brutal it is. I mean, you’ve got Assassins Creed 2, Modern Warfare 2, Mass Effect 2.”

“To me, it’s been a period of enormous change, and the last four years I would say has been the time when games have actually surpassed movies as the premium blockbuster entertainment,” he continues.

Speaking of, the summer is basically an empty season for video games. I don’t know why developers and publishers can’t just space things out because, like I said, the summer season is basically empty for video games.

When it comes to holiday releases only the strong can make it out alive. That’s why Activision has bumped Singularity’s release date, because they do not want Modern Warfare 2’s release getting in the way of Singularity being a success.

According to Kotaku, Activision has today opened a time portal for Singularity, moving it to Q1 2010, well out of range of Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2.

“The level of excitement for Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2 coming out of E3 well exceeded our expectations and therefore we have decided to move Raven’s upcoming sci-fi first person action title, Singularity, from 2009 to Q1 2010,” said an Activision spokesperson to Kotaku.

“We believe that the March quarter will provide a better opportunity to establish the new cutting-edge action IP as a ‘must-have’ title and clears the way for Modern Warfare 2 to dominate this holiday season.”

[Activision Moves Singularity Out Of Modern Warfare 2's Way via Kotaku]

Remember the “three red lights of death” issue? Well, how can you forget, and it looks like many of us maybe in for some “three red lights” with the upcoming update for the 360. A trusted source working as a customer service rep for Microsoft has revealed to Gaming Confidential that there will be some “drama” when the Xbox 360’s Fall update hits on November 19th. The rep says that the update could bring the dreaded “three red lights of death” issue back up.

“The slick move by Microsoft here is that it’s releasing the update on the 19th, just a couple of days after the extended warranty period for launch Xbox 360s end. The owners of these units are headed for some pretty tense times in the weeks to come,” he said. “Our department is bracing itself from irrate callers after the update is released. I’m bringing some aspirin to work this holiday season,”.

[MS Rep: Fall update will be big trouble via Gaming Confidential]