I'm not sure where everyone else stands on this issue but I'm totally satisfied with they way FASA handled the pre-release commotion that is usually found in the gaming industry. Often times games are give a specific release date the moment they are revealed to the public. This practice is being cut back some... but there are still delays aplenty. With a game such as Shadowrun, it wasn't announced until it was in a semi-complete state (for a lack of better words, basically it was up and running and needed the kinks ironed out).
This was followed by a beta, and through the months multiple updates, designer diaries and previews have been given by several gaming sites. Throughout this whole time, FASA never gave Shadowrun a specific release date. However we knew how the game was progressing due to the official information about how the game was being played, provided by the developer on a regular basis.
Updating us gamers in such a manner, practically eliminates the need to give out a release date at such a premature time. We knew roughly how far along in development it was by the content provided to us. This lead to no dissapointments as there was never actually any delays. And then on the day that the game goes golden, FASA announces the release date.
Pure genious if you ask me. I believe they handled it quite well (enough for me to make a post about it specifically) and would love to see other developers follow this route. No one likes a new game taking the place of Duke Nukem Forever or Spore each month with new delays.
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