I think it's more than 4 years now. Also some folks keep forgetting that this game has the biggest development team ever assembled in MMO history, not to mention the sheer amount of resources being used. On top of that they are also using new technology to develop this game which also increases productivity.

Does anyone really know how long it took them to make EQ2, WoW, Lineage, CoH, AoC, WAR, etc etc? I think the average is about 3 to 4 years.