I agree with above poster, unfortunately not with the columnist this time, no matter how well-written the original post is. I think the basic arguments are flawed; for example a day to fix a bug may be forgiveable, but some bugs would take much longer to eradicate which would wear the patience of more people thin.

I've played Warhammer Online, which is a good demonstration of what happens when a game gets released before it's really ready (and has the horrible drop in subscriptions to testify).

Even though its POSSIBLE to deliver a game on time by cutting features and letting bugs stay unfixed until the next patch, it is almost never wise. Announcing release dates puts pressure on programmers to do rush jobs when unexpected problems arise, which leads to bad programming which is less maintainable and will give much more headaches in future. To quote 'the Princess Bride': 'You rush a miracle man - you get rotten miracles.'

In most cases, Blizzard is taking the time they need, which allows them to make games like Starcraft, Diablo and World of Warcraft, which are to my knowledge still considered some of the greatest games ever made.

Would I LIKE to hear release dates? Sure! But not at the most likely cost of buggy patches and jagged coding. What I would like though sometimes are 'negative deadlines', namely before what date the patch is NOT going to be released. That would prevent my curiosity from inciting me to check the Blizzard site incessantly when my work is boring ;)