I'm with Voty on this one. Releasing in the holidays doesn't dramatically increase the long-term sales, it just makes the title more front loaded.
I think releasing when they did was the right choice, as God of War - being a large, but not giant seller - could be hurt by the immense competition during November and December. Releasing during the holidays is a larger risk, as it's easier to be lost in all the games.
For a game like GoW 3, I think a non-holiday launch is just better. Don't forget that it sold 500k in the holiday season, when that came around. In short, I think GoW 3 was a brilliantly handled release, and that they couldn't have squeezed many more sales out of it.
Oh, and a little thing. GoW 3 isn't the only Ps3 game to sell a million in America in a month, Metal Gear Solid 4 did that too.
