Summer of video games: Real heat's in late fall but lots of new fare in summer

Summer is typically a slow time for hot new video game releases. This year is no different.

Gamers looking forward to big brands like "Halo 3" and "Grand Theft Auto IV" will have to wait until this fall and the Thanksgiving-Christmas holidays. That's when the games business goes into overdrive and makes up half its revenue, says analyst Anita Frazier at NPD Group.

"Traditionally, the summer months haven't been super strong game-sales months," says analyst Ted Pollak of Jon Peddie Research. "Games are an indoor sport and it just lends itself to the holidays."

Other game to be released by platform and date:("*" denotes games that will be released on multiple platforms)

Nintendo DS games

• *Surf's Up: Penguin surfing movie, penguin surfing game - May 29. .

• Touchmaster: The arcade and bar classic is a natural for a touch screen format - June 11.

• Zendoku:On paper game Sudoku on your DS but with characters - June 12.

• SimCity DS: Based on the PC "SimCity 3000" - June 19.

• Transformers: Decepticons: Another summer movie game - June 19.

• *Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: Based on some book or movie or something - June 25.

• Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon: A spin off the Harvest Moon series for its 10th anniversary - July 2.

• Bratz Ponyz: Who doesn't love ponies, fashion and Bratz dolls? - August 14.

PC games:

• *Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia: - Fight the undead at your house or the "maul" - May 29.

• *Shadowrun: Microsoft brings PC gamers (Vista only) and Xbox 360 people together, for good or ill - May 29.

• *DiRT: - Colin McRae's latest off-road racing extravaganza - June 19.

• The Sims: Pet Stories: Raise cats and dogs in a sim game - June 19.

• Attack on Pearl Harbor: Aerial combat for history buffs - June 22.

• Lost Planet: Another PC/360 action shooter - June 26.

• *Overlord: Pillage, conquer, destroy! - June 26.