You need to look at the way the NBA market their game Live 07. They released it about a month before the season which is perfect timing to release a game imo. You get the initial boom (if its half decent) then in another 4 weeks when its died down a bit you get another boost from people at the start of the year, and then the game is up to date for that year, its perfect i reckon, obviously the next game won't be done by the start of next season but you should try to get it out as early as possible