Here is this quote from the IGN article:
IGN FFXIV Article

So what’s the timeline on all this? First, in August, Square Enix will ramp up more detailed reveals about what’s to come in Final Fantasy XIV. Then in September, there’ll be an alpha test, and after feedback is collected and incorporated into the game, a beta test version will roll out first for PC, then for PlayStation 3. “We want to make sure this time we take a lot of time to listen to feedback from users during this beta test and implement as much of it as possible before the release,” said Yoshida. “We want to make sure we have a massive amount of content at launch. We don’t want to go into launch without enough to do. So it’s going to be building up that content base and getting this feedback in. That might end up pushing the release back a little. It’s all going to depend on that.”
I am glad to see that they are taking their time with this.