Vanguard Release Date...

[Greymain]

Will accept a bet that release will be before Christmas or after Christmas but During the Christmas break ... never.

Since Christmas is the most important sales opportunity of the year. If I was the project manager in Microsoft responsible for the publishing and distribution of Vanguard I would want a saleable product on my desk at least a month before launch. Knowing the software industry I would set a target launch date one month before my real deadline.

I would never ever publish my launch date until I had a working version of the game in the bag. (beta testing and minor changes would still be in process providing that inevitable patch after installation)

[Cobalt Katze]

If Vanguard is released for the "holiday season," that makes for a LOT of competition in contending for peoples' money. Considering that two next-gen systems are coming out then (PS3 & Revolution) and two of the biggest gaming franchises are releasing their latest entry (Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess & Final Fantasy XII).

Personally, I'd aim for a late summer release. But who knows

[Aredhel]

I'm looking at fall or winter, myself, but...who knows? Brad isn't going to be pushed, and thank the gods for that!

Actually, I have preorders in at GameStop. If they want to use the money to get a bit of interest off of, and still save me a copy when it comes out, I'm all for it! I remember when some of the other stuff came out (like EQ2) and there was a shortage. My silly (and early on the list) $5 deposit saved my cookies!

[Jaeth]

Originally Posted by Cobalt Katze

Personally, I'd aim for a late summer release. But who knows

There's always hope.

Originally Posted by Aredhel

I'm looking at fall or winter, myself, but...who knows? Brad isn't going to be pushed, and thank the gods for that!

Amen, err, sister?

Originally Posted by Aredhel

Actually, I have preorders in at GameStop. If they want to use the money to get a bit of interest off of, and still save me a copy when it comes out, I'm all for it! I remember when some of the other stuff came out (like EQ2) and there was a shortage. My silly (and early on the list) $5 deposit saved my cookies!

Heh, I'd preorder, but I can't afford it right now - I'm broke having ordered the Super Collector's Edition of Heroes of Might and Magic V...

[Aredhel]

"Sister" would be correct, Bro!

[Jaeth]

Originally Posted by Aredhel

"Sister" would be correct, Bro!

Hehe, no doubt about "that" on my end - you just usually hear the "amen brother!" and not the "amen sister"...

Or is that just me?

[rabb1t]

Originally Posted by Zublak

and it says you can pre-order now through wal-mart.

Yet, if you go to their site, and run a search, Vanguard (the video game) does not appear.

In fact, the only retailer to my knowledge to list Vanguard is GameStop. As such, I wouldn't trust anything they list.

As to an estimated date - you can rest assured that the game isn't going to release in anything fewer than 3 months of heavy advertising hype. Considering there is currently zero advertising hype, we are talking about at least July+.

My personal hopeful guess is that the mega hype will begin at E3 and launch would thus be within 3 months of that (placing it at an ~August launch).

If you are in the same "camp" I am (HA!) and believe that Microsoft is going to hype Vanguard as "the killer app" for Vista, then it is most logical to assume that it would launch right near Vista's launch as well as include DX10 enhancements. Someone listed "November" in a blog recently and it was quickly replaced with a vague 'end of 06' statement. In GameSpots recent final coverage of Vista the MS rep mentioned that there will be 'Vista launch games that use DX10' (time index 2:12+) implying both that there would be at least some games that run dual DX9/DX10 code and that DX10 enabled GPUs will be out as well at the time of Vista's launch.

[Pirotess]

I've been figuring Nov/Dec for quite some time now based on the ebb and flow of information coming in from Brad on the OVFs. It sounds like they have alot of work left and July would be way too soon.