I was told a potential release date.

[basti]

Indeed, take it with a grain of salt. But this time, a small grain.

Higbys dev blog from today indicates that they got to a very certain point now. A Point where beta could start.

I literally expect beta in september now.

[Bags]

Originally Posted by basti

I literally expect beta in september now.

Well, there go my grades.

[Minigun]

Originally Posted by Bags

Well, there go my grades.

your telling me, i was planning on trying to do good this semester lol

[Crazyduckling]

Originally Posted by Bags

Well, there go my grades.

Originally Posted by Minigun

your telling me, i was planning on trying to do good this semester lol

I'm with you guys.

How am I going to balance an internship, job, class, and PS2? One of them must go!

[Grimster]

LOL, I don't work in that business but it doesn't take a Einstein to figure out that the guys selling the game are probably among the last to know when the game is actually getting released.

Gamestop probably got that from some distributor who provided it as fact when they simply don't know.

[Avirau]

Originally Posted by LZachariah

... to my friend at GameStop today, and asked...

Stopped reading there. Seriously, everyone should know by now that any GameStop "release dates" listed before an official date is stated by the developers/publishers is complete bull. Also, I don't think it will be out until late 2012 given what we've seen so far, but who knows, one can always hope for something sooner!

[RedKnights]

Well we know they're doing internal playtesting, and we know they're doing almost daily patches of the game.

We also know they're in China right now overseeing "something" with The9, which my guess would be setting up servers for them and making sure everything works for them.

Frankly the OP's timeline does seem quite plausible, though i'm not going to bank on it because i'm a pessimist. I don't think Beta would be this month, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Beta in November and release somewhere around Q1 2012.

Though could you imagine it releasing in November along-side Modern Warfare and Battlefield? That would be sexy. I'd be happy with Beta in November, just if for no other reason there'd be a lot of press attention on FPS games in general, and it might capture the attention of that community.

[FastAndFree]

Also remember that Smedley mentioned he wants to go on a vacation when Battlefield 3 releases.
Could he leave the project hanging in the air for weeks like that? Probably not, thus he has no choice but to get it finished before BF3 is released!

[WarChimp130]

I was at Gamestop the other day and they told me the same thing, but I told the guy there is no way it'll be out by then. He looked at me like I was stupid but I went all power nerd on him and said the game hasn't even gone to Beta yet and details are still sketchy at best about even basic elements of the game. Then I pushed up my glasses, shifted my pen protector, grabbed my game and stormed out.

[Lunarchild]

I somehow doubt that this release date is accurate also. Other than the things already mentioned here, there's also the case of <NDA sensitive information edited out>.

[PrISM]

Originally Posted by Hamma

To back up what others have said take these with a grain of salt.. nobody knows but SOE right now.

You sure even SOE knows?

[Hamma]

They probably don't know an exact date no, but they know a shitload more than a Video Game retailer would

[Lokster]

I am optimistic the game will at least begin BETA before 2012. I will be happy if it released by July 2012 tho.