September 23: The Septembering
July 27, 2008
So I come back from a week of cruising the mean cornfields of Iowa to Warhammer Online bloggers and fans alike all a-twitter over a little rumor called “RELEASE DATE 9/23 SAYS EA WEBSITE OMG OMG OMG I JUST PEED MY PANTS A LITTLE AND I AM A 42-YEAR-OLD MAN!!!1!”
Frankly, I think we need to calm down. And somebody get that man a new pair of pants, stat.
Oddly enough, while this info is on the EA website, it’s still considered a “rumor” for intents and purposes. Will it be the release date? Very possibly. But until there’s a press release to solidify that into fact, we have to keep our legs crossed and our fluid intake down a tad.
No matter what, this is a somewhat inconsiderate move on EA’s part. Whether the 9/23 date is a placeholder “suggested” date (which corresponds to other stores’ websites) or if it’s the real deal, it’s just kind of rude to take the wind out of the sails of Mythic by (a) not letting them be the ones to announce it, or at least (b) releasing that info to a big fanfare instead of a “whoops I stumbled on it when I put it in my shopping cart”.
I don’t really have much else to say on this, other than that two months seems awfully small for guild beta to do any serious good for the game’s testing, plus open beta, plus the head start. Plus NDA droppage. Plus the media hype pile-on that’s destined to happen.
Take my hand, internet. We’re going to cross that street when the light changes. Waiting… waiting…
Waaagh! A Warhammer Online Blog 
I still think it’s just a placeholder date. Webshops often require something to be put in, and September 23 is the official starting date for Fall. I wouldn’t take it any further.
(You have my permission to throw this in my face when it’s revealed to be Sept 23)
Hi Syp!
Been reading your blog for some time but when I read this post I just had to comment. I did some serious laughing at that first part and I don’t laugh a whole lot. Thx man 🙂 two months without water will be tough though. I really hope it releases on said date.
Welcome back!
As much as I woould love the date to be September 23, I’m not counting on it… I’m thinking October might be more realistic.
Now what might be in the upcoming July newsletter? THAT I enjoy speculating about. 😉 Perhaps an NDA drop-date? Open beta start date? Hmm…
Could this be a move by EA to get mythic to release a bit earlier? Get people so worked up over this semi-official (it will seem to many) date so as to force mythic’s hand?
Just an idea…
Blizzard’s web people have accidentally leaked announcements in the past. As to the relatively short window from now til then, large scale betas are effectively a PR stunt these days anyway; the signal to noise ratio gets unmanageable the more people you have in, and Mythic already has a “focus testing” team to get the serious feedback from.
The only thing that seems pretty stupid is that “everything else in the game will be ready to go on Sept 23” might have done a bit so soften the blow of the cut content a few weeks back. (In fact, knowing that the remaining beta will be so short does a bit to explain why they were sure they wouldn’t finish the other stuff in time.) But hey, PR depts screw up like that from time to time.
We’ve all seen the previous dates from Amazon.com, etc… but coming from the company publishing the game I think they just might have slipped up and let it out. How long do most open beta’s last anyway? I think the sooner, the better for them as long as the game is working.