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Publishers traditionally aim many of the big, triple-A releases for the fall, holiday rush period -- this year being no exception, as this week and the past few have demonstrated. It's hell on the wallets of gamers and on their schedules. With that in mind, Stardock has a very novel idea that CEO Brad Wardell hopes they can manage: Avoid the the holiday rush and release a game early in the year.

"What we try to do is we want to release a title every first quarter of every year," Wardell told Gamasutra. "For as far out as our schedule goes -- that's five or six years -- there's a game coming out."

Sins of a Solar Empire did exactly that earlier this year when it was released in February. Next up for Stardock is Demigod which is slated for February 2009. Beyond that, there's no indication of what Stardock is planning on releasing, though the 2011 release is already locked in. Wardell claims the company has more games in development and that "we're in the process of building a second games team."

Future releases from Stardock will continue to be a combination of internally and externally developed games, with the latter coming from companies like Ironclad and Gas Powered Games, provided "they still like us," Wardell said.

It's an interesting proposition. After all, many people find themselves with some cash, gift cards, and things to return in the weeks following the Christmas period, and having a big PC release waiting for gamers around that time when the market isn't quite so saturated with new releases sounds like a pretty solid strategy.