Education time. Skip to the last paragraph if you just don't care.
Actually, my post relates to the northern hemisphere in general, not solely the US. Take note of the fact that I did remark as to which football I was referring to, displaying my awareness that those outside of the US and Canada refer to a different sport as football. Europe and Asia have similar school patterns, similar shopping patterns, and similar TV patterns in large part because of the same seasons at the same time of the year that dictate crop planting patterns and thus the events that our respective nations developed around the planting cycle, and a better mixing of cultures then in the (by comparison) lesser developed southern hemisphere. I make the assumption that Australia follows the same TV, Movie, and holiday schedule as the majority of the rest of the world since it would be foolish of them as a nation to try to do everything opposite and hold back movies and such for half a year longer then the rest of the world...
Any intelligent individual would know that I, as a US citizen, am only speaking from experience of North America and to some degree Europe, where the vast majority of developed nations, people, surplus spending, and consequently, gamers are from, with Eastern Asia rapidly catching up as their standards of living improve. Since the younger generations of North Americans and Europeans are all indeed back in school (since after the harvest of days past before automation, they'd no longer be needed on the farms until it was time to plant in the spring), the TV markets of North America and Europe are all indeed starting up their new seasons of TV programs and movies, (again, likely to coincide with the fact that the farming communities have less to do after the final harvest of the year until spring) the stores in North America and Europe as well as Asia, Africa, and yes Australia, as well as those that supply them with goods world wide are all keen to the fact that the holiday season is approaching and are holding back and starting to build up surpluses for the over spending that occurs at that time of year. Industrialization changed everything, but even though the amount of manpower spent on making sure there was enough food to eat dramatically decreased, and time spent in schools increased, the patterns all still stayed the same because there's no point in arbitrarily changing something that works. Daylight Saving Time is a good example of not changing. We're not farming communities anymore, we don't need it through most of the world, yet we use it, and recently modified it to be of better use, and some countries are just now adopting it... Couple that with the fact that much of the rest of the world copies the US in a great many things, especially in terms of entertainment (new TV and movies), economy fluctuations, as well as even when new cars hit the showroom floors and dealerships, it only makes good sense and use of time to follow North American habits when over generalizing world wide patterns of behavior since much of the world follows that pattern eventually as well. It may not be completely accurate to Germany, it may not be completely accurate to Japan, what's true in California and Texas isn't necessarily what's true in Idaho and West Virginia, but the general pattern is still roughly the same in all cases.
And since it seems I struck a nerve possibly with my generalization, in the spirit of cultural sensitivity, let me state that the simple fact that when you say America/American instead of the US, you inadvertently along with the US, include Canada, Mexico, El Salvador, Belize, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Panama, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica, British Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Dominica, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Guyana, French Guiana, Paraguay, Uruguay, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela... (I think that's all of them... If I left one or two out, I apologize.) Countries and territories who's people are all Americans being that they are located in North or South America, just like people from Ireland, Sweden, and Greece are all considered Europeans. I, more then anybody I know, am usually careful to make the US reference rather then just the American reference since I'm aware of this little cultural nomenclature snafu. The irony is that most of the world get's mad at those of us from the US and Canada for saying Fall instead of Autumn even though we use both quite liberally and interchangeably, and call it soccer instead of football, when they do the far worse thing of just saying Americans rather then using the proper term of referring to those of us from the United States by which state we live in, since technically, each state is it's own governing body and as Arizona has recently decided to prove, it's authority on internal matters supercedes what the federal government might say about something.
Again to make the European comparison, the US Federal Government is actually the equivalent of the EU. The US dollar would be the equivalent of the Euro. In early US history, each State printed it's own currency, like each European nation does. Early on, the Federal government was adopted and a standardization of currency occurred, and in the past couple decades Europe decided to follow suite and create a centralized body and a common currency to handle things on a much greater scale, noting how powerful the US economy and culture is in an extremely short amount of time by comparison to themselves and their nations. South American nations annually get together to try and work out a similar system, though to date, little has been accomplished due to the fact that their mostly underdeveloped nations and economies cannot support such a set up yet. As Asia develops and begins to rival North America and Europe for standard of living qualities, and travel and money starts getting tossed around equally as liberally as they do here in North America and Europe, you'll see them shift away from the everybody for themselves mentality to the let's have a central body and common currency model as the two previously mentioned continents have. But before anyone says North America doesn't have a truly common currency, let me remind you that every country in the world accepts the US dollar, and I know for a fact that every country I've ever been to has always been more then happy to take my money if I'm running short on theirs, Canada and Mexico especially since it's easy for them to convert it over or use it for other sales transactions. The US dollar is in fact the unofficial global currency. Don't believe me? Get yourself a bunch of $20 bills from the States and go somewhere in the world, anywhere. It'll take some talking and a little negotiating, but you will be able to spend it, you'll probably get ripped off, but you still get to spend it, thus proving it is in fact a worldwide currency.
I've got a whole lot more to say on the subject, but honestly, I'm getting hungry and I just got invited out to dinner with Celeste, my stripper neighbor, and some of her friends, and no one is reading this anyway, so that's enough rambling on out of me...
You can pick apart what I wrote saying I'm not speaking specifically to your area, I can pick apart what you typed saying you overgeneralized like I did, only inaccurately, but none of it changes the fact that this time of year is the gaming equivalent of death when compared to the other times because most of the gamers right now have several other activities to participate in and game companies are holding new products back.
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