The problem is, they are ALSO denying their fans a chance to get excited.

You don't want to do that.

I'm not sure there's much chance that people won't be excited for TOR.

A valid point to be sure.

I think Blizz does seek to mute the hype for other things by hyping their coming soon project.

My memories of Warhammer Online for example were:
1) People were really bored with TBC at the time
2) Many people were looking forward to Warhammer Online as an improvement and fresh.
3) Blizz began their WOLK hype at about the time WHO was announced.

Now the releases were about two months apart, and WHO missing some crucial components helped sink the enthusiasm (it did mine), but it was clear that the timing and the release of the xpac was not coincidental. Blizz wanted to keep themselves in view and steal some of the spotlight.

Now as someone else pointed out, Blizz didn't do anything wrong. It's a legitimate business tactic (there's no reason to think they broke the law). But I'm sure that knowing how Blizz operates, I suspect that EA's motivation is to get the best launch possible.

Ultimately it seems to me that what will save or sink SWTOR is whether it can live up to the hype or not.

I'm with Ringo on this one. I don't think Bioware CAN deny their fans a chance to get excited. They've been basically weekly releasing new videos and information. They're keeping the hype up. We might not have a day circled in our calendars yet, but that hasn't stopped anyone from holding a marker, a calendar, and keeping an eye on the computer screen.

Opting to not announce a release date because you are concerned about what Blizzard is going to do is smart. Admitting that you are "scared" of the competition to any extent isn't.

I am not sure, but blizzard is kinda predictable with their releases, and not just for wow, but
other games also. But you can count on a release for a new expansion roughly every two years, and the announcement around the same time... A content patch isnt enough for most people to not move off and try a new game.(its not like an expansion)

Also, if memory is correct, the initial concept of wrath was announced before WHO had a release date, and bliz just put out the expansion in line with how it had for BC... Also, Cata was not as big of an attention holder as expected.

I think if companies can work around blizzards predictability, then they can grab a lot of blizzards customers, use their nature against them!