I could be wrong on this, but isn't it similar to the announcement/launch timing of the Burning crusade Expansion (which, by the way, was well over a year ago at this point, so there is no "under the deadline" ;) )?

I would be shocked if there were *not* things that require a bit of patching after launch, what with the number of changes and the amount of rebalancing required. Actually, I fully expect that, in order to have the number of disks produced on time, there may be an immediate patch available to the content shipped in the retail box. I'm ok with that.

Now, are they under pressure to have a product on the shelves this year? Probably. But I remain hopeful that they know the loss of their reputation as a company that ships something when it is ready would be greater than the outcry over waiting on a release date announcement. So if they say November 13 it will be ready and up to their standards, I am willing to believe it until shown otherwise.