Abriael and inrainbows, you need to quit arguing because in reality, you're both right.

Abriael is right in that there should be no significant downtime between the end of beta and the release of the game. Inrainbows is right because the length of the Beta can be adjusted which would put any release date, even were it the day after the beta ends, off schedule.

Yes, they should, and are, take as long as they need to get it right so it doesn't flop. No, there should be no significant downtime between the end of beta and release. Marketing and advertising is flexible enough to deal with any change we may foresee.