It's begun. As was the case earlier this year, next year's Spring lineup is densely packed with high-profile games. As such, the inevitable migration to the holiday season begins with Microsoft's announcement that Gears of War 3 - one third of its blockbuster trifecta at this year's E3 - will be relocated from its already announced April 5, 2011 release to later in the year. "The teams at Microsoft Game Studios and Epic Games have done great work thus far readying the title for release in the Spring of 2011," a statement released by Microsoft said. "However, we've elected to move the launch of Gears of War 3 until Fall 2011 to make it the marquee title for the holiday season."

The move is ostensibly designed to better position the third installment in the pachydude simulator and, we imagine, pad out Microsoft's holiday 2011 releases. That doesn't leave a lot of room for E3 surprises if Gears 3 is the Xbox's "marquee title" for the 2011 holiday season. No bother, we're still holding out for that Blinx: The Time Sweeper HD update.