Warhammer Online Pushed to Q2 2008

Just spotted this over at our friendly neighborhood MMORPG.com.  Here’s the gist of what we know so far:

It was announced today in the EA Earnings Call that Warhammer Online has pushed back its launch date from Q1 2008 to Q2 2008. Mark Jacobs, the VP of EA Mythic, spoke with MMORPG.com and told us that this decision was made in order to deliver a polished product at launch, and does not threaten the game’s production.

A complete article concerning this announcement and the conversation with Mark Jacobs will be available at MMORPG.com at midnight server time.

For some this will only heighten “doom and gloom” talk, despite what the quote above says.  For others they will say “I knew this was going to happen!”.  In fact, if I recall correctly, Keen called this one and said he thought it very likely that WAR would get pushed to Q2 2008. 

I’m going to guess though that they will now be making an early Q2 2008 release – May sounds good.

With the recent acquisition of Bioware by EA, and the announced restructing and layoffs that we know are happening with EA, I’m betting it’s all impacted the dev cycle here.  I’m sure assets, people, and timelines for all product are being heavily evaluated.  I honestly don’t mind waiting and if it helps them to make the game that much better, I’m all for it.

More to come on this as I spot it at MMORPG or elsewhere.  Stay tuned true believers!