You ever notice how companies that make the best things are always airheads and never have it together? Like Valve, they think Steam will solve all the worlds problems....WRONG. They also kept delaying CS 1.6 until finally they released something that needed patching anyways. I had to wait over a month for Valve to get it together and patch Steam to where it wouldn't crash my PC everytime it was opened. Bear in mind that the only time my PC has frozen or crashed was when I was using early yet still past 1.0 relases of Steam.
But back to the subject - I don't believe this release date in the first place. Notice how Valve hasn't said anything, just IGN? Think about it.