Next Generation (NG) decided to have a bit of fun with console review scores -- handhelds were not included due to significantly lower scores overall -- by taking the ones from 2002 to 2007 and averaging them all out by month. Data was taken from the industry averages on Metacritic. The results?

"The greenest green in this table represents the highest monthly averages while the reddest red represents the depressingly low ones."

Certainly interesting to say the least. Apparently April 2003 was the best time for games and we haven't had it quite that good since. Games released that month:

• NBA Street Vol. 2 for GameCube, Xbox, and PS2 (88-90%)
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell for PS2 and GameCube (89%)
• Burnout 2: Point of Impact for Xbox and GameCube (88-89%)
• Midnight Club II for PS2 (85%)

Besides these being multiplatform, there were fewer low scores that month as well, explaining the average.

It's also interesting to note the holiday season shows consistently low scores. Considering this is the biggest time for games, it's dissapointing to know companies are (apparently) more likely to rush and/or not put the proper effort into a game during this time. The worst Christmas season, December 2007, featured The Golden Compass (34-46%), Alvin and the Chipmunks (30-34%), and Jenga: World Tour (24%), but also the good stuff like UT III and The Orange Box.

My guess for the earlier part of each year having the most amount of high scores is that publishers have reaped the benefits of the holiday season and are more than prepared to release titles, whichever ones they please, in fact, as they can afford to not cash in like crazy on the lesser-known titles. NG expands on my theory:

"Why drop a really good game in amongst the rabble during that rush up to Christmas? It's just going to get missed in the scramble to pick up those last-minute Christmas gifts, so better to keep good games for a later time...like February the following year!"

One reader suspects there's more time to chill and fix bugs during this period, too.

NG predicts the summer months to be a lull due to it...being summer. The higher scores in August, they say, revolve around Madden NFL:

"Few people want to go head-to-head with Madden NFL in August, so fewer games are released and those games that are released are of higher quality."

Don't know if I agree with that, but then again I'm not much of a sports gamer.

From January 2006 onward, they attribute the downturn to  the  onset of  new consoles, which, indeed were doing pretty bad there for awhile.  I predict we'd  see a gradual upturn in the  scores for the next five years were this type of thing to be done again.