The past two holiday seasons have not been kind of Eidos Interactive. Kane & Lynch: Dead Men and Tomb Raider: Underworld received lukewarm reviews at best, with sales to match. Eidos president Ian Livingstone says there's no room for that this year.

"A lot of titles have already hit the shelves and there is a deluge planned for Christmas, but I think 2009 will be remembered as the year of 'roast duck or no dinner,'" Livingstone told GamesIndustry.biz.

"There's a glut of product and in a discerning market there is no room for mediocrity. To make a suboptimal game with a suboptimal marketing spend is a recipe for disaster."