No release date; could it mean we're in for a longer wait than expected?

How do they expect the launch of 2.0 to be successful if they aren't even willing to give a release date? In my opinion you can't just expect to let us know about the release date a week or two in advance, and expect people to be aware of it. In order for people to be aware of the launch of the game setting a release date is a pretty important aspect... Not everyone's following the game as closely as us after all.

If 2.0 is going to most likely come out before February 2013, like most of us are expecting it to, it seems really rash that they haven't even released a release date yet. I can't think of any game launch that hasn't announced a release date well before three months ahead of time. Granted, this isn't really a new game, but they're treating it like one after all...

This leads me to believe that the launch date could be much later than we're expecting. I hope it's not the case, but I'm starting to consider fall or winter 2013 as viable options.

Considering they really want to do things right, setting a release date now could really put to much pressure on the dev team. Trust me i really want this game too, but i also really want them to spend a good amount of time in alpha and beta to get everything ironed out and running smooth. with a set release date now, they might have to push it back some, which will just piss players off more then they already are with this game.

under promise, over deliver, something Borderland's Gearbox has done, and hopefully SE can do

Setting an arbitrary launch date is one of the many reasons they are in the spot there in now.

Do everyone a favor and please let the community know when you finish considering fall and winter 2013 as viable options. At that point let us know what your conclusion is, and hopefully, provide more evidence for the conclusion than the absence of a release date.

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Originally Posted by Griss

Setting an arbitrary launch date is one of the many reasons they are in the spot there in now.

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They are in a tough position because they need to carry over as many subscribers as possible to 2.0 in order to maintain momentum and be successful. So to please those 1.0 subscribers, they can't just leave the date open-ended. People will leave and not come back. Having a fairly fixed window of downtime carries a lot of weight with people planning on returning for 2.0. I think they are doing pretty well sticking to the roadmap. There's some deviance but nothing unacceptable. If open-beta does really start in January like Yoshi has been saying then I think that will point towards a release shortly after which is what they need in order to keep subs.

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Originally Posted by gahoo

Do everyone a favor and please let the community know when you finish considering fall and winter 2013 as viable options. At that point let us know what your conclusion is, and hopefully, provide more evidence for the conclusion than the absence of a release date.

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The "evidence" is self-evident, so I don't need to supply it for you, but considering you seem deeply offended by my speculation I'll touch on the subject a little bit more.

For example, the beta is still yet to take place and beta's are usually at least six months before a games launch. In addition to that fact, Yoshida has stated on several occasions that they will be taking every bit of time needed to make the game perfect before it launches, no matter how long it takes. The observation you so easily dismissed that no release date has been set yet is also a pretty important fact to take into consideration regardless of your opinion. Release dates are important for the sales at the launch of a game, and the marketing team knows that. If devs had it their way all the time games would never have a release date announce until the day before they're shipped; unfortunately however successful marketing doesn't work that way.

Just considering the above mentioned observations, one can reasonably suspect that the launch date may end up being much later than generally expected. However, I'm not saying that I'm convinced that's the case. I made it quite clear that it was just speculation, so the're no reason for you to get so offended. I do think it is a realistic option that it may be as late as next fall or winter. I'm not going to say I think it's more likely that it will be that late, but I'm not going to rule it out as an option either.

March at the earliest..

Hasn't the entire 2.0 roadmap been off schedule? Release will be too I'm sure
Not sure if it's been ENTIRELY off schedule but yeah

It will be done when its done.

They should adopt blizzard vaporware policy :P

They probably won't give a release date until they're comfortable with Alpha testing results. Alpha doesn't sound like it's starting until after the final save, and you can except it to last a month to ensure the stress testing goes ok.

I speculated in another thread, but I think it's going to be around March for retail. Betas for a game don't necessarily have to last 6 months. The only reason the beta would last this long is if the game is bug ridden. They had a foundation to build off of, so ideally the beta shouldn't last too long, and Yoshida has expressed the same in thinking beta won't last very long.