[Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris looks at trends in recent holiday “hot toy/game” lists that highlight everything from LeapFrog to Call of Duty — but do they really say anything at all?]

If you’re like me, the fact that the holiday push now begins in September is mildly nauseating. Can we all agree, before we dive any deeper, that the display of Christmas decorations in stores starting around Labor Day is categorically wrong?

Still, the relentless march to move the holiday shopping period earlier and earlier continues, so it’s not especially surprising that the prognosticators and seers from all sorts of research firms and corporations are putting out their annual guesses about what will top this year’s “gotta have” lists — which basically amount to corporate tools that don’t mean all that much.

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