As a former employee of Software Etc. (affiliate of Gamestop) I can say with confidence that the release dates we are given and in turn give out to the public, are fairly unreliable. I've seen countless games, strategy guides, toys, joysticks, etc., have their release dates moved around before actually reaching the store.
Part of the problem, to be fair, is that we would often have release dates in our system so far in advance, just to be able to give something to the customer, that it is almost inevitable that something will change or there will be a hick-up in the development process. Sometimes even wacky things happen to delay a game.
I remember one game back in 1999 that was delayed by a day or so, because the place it was being packaged, ran out of shrink wrap! I honestly don't know if that is true, but that's the story we were given, and it sounds so far off the wall to be made up, in my mind. I can actually imagine something that silly happening, to delay a game.
It is highly encouraging though, to see a title moved forward, instead of backwards. I can't recall how many times I've seen that, but it isn't often and it is usually a good sign.
Additionally, we are talking about Sony and Everquest, two household names. From what I've heard from Beta testers, the game is operational, with some minor bugs and slow down, I'm unsure if it's server or client side (the slowdown), probably a little of both, because EQ2 does push the limits of todays hardware and the message boards of many sites are filled with people talking about upgrades. SOE's own official website forum, has a thread devoted to video cards, that is over 17 pages long.
I have to think, "What would I do if was Sony?" I know it is common knowledge in the retail world, if not the consumer side, that the holiday season is the most lucrative months of the year and conversely, the post Christmas months tend to see a sharp decline in profits as consumers recover from their (typically) over spending.
What this tells me, as Sony, is that regardless of the success I'm sure to have with a household name and highly anticipated title like Everquest 2, I could still probably sell more games and subscribe new users, by releasing the game at the beginning of the holidays, just before the mad, post Thanksgiving, rush.
Not only that, but I still have a reputation to uphold. This late in the game, I'm still telling my customers that the game will be released in November. I would do better, as previous posters have suggested, to release the game on time, and patch as necessary and fill the content of the higher levels as time progresses.
What would I do, if I was Sony, to make this happen? I would hire extra (temp) programmers, increase the work hours of current programmers, with added bonuses, incentives, and quality of life comforts to ease the strain of a long day of work and triple check that things as trivial as packaging supplies are all in order, well in advance of my projected release date.
Overall, I always have a little of that, "Too good to be true," skepticism, but I am confident that most of us will be playing Everquest 2 in November.
Kallirye