curious about delays

[nerdgirl]

I was just curious about why games get their release dates delayed so much. Is there any source that can say for sure when something will be out? I guess these are pretty naive questions, huh? Anyway, I was just curious...

Thanks,
ng

[mstubble]

Most game development studios set release dates based on an estimated time they can complete the game. They also set release dates for publisher/retailers to have an ETA as well.

That doesn’t necessarily mean they will complete the game on that exact date but that’s what their goal is set at. Just like anything in life sometimes they run into snags in development and they need more time to complete the game, add more features, or to make a game better than a competitors.

For the most part, the only release dates that can be trusted are for console games, which know pretty much the exact development time they have and how much they want to add to the game before they release it.

[Mike]

Don't stress though, a lot of times when games are delayed they seem to become even better! For example, Blizzard delays virtually all of its games and they still turn out excellent.
mstubble summed it up nicely. Can't really add anything to that.