When's the update, naughty?!

Question number one these days seems to be when the next update is due, in one form or another. One quick look at the progress bar shows it can't be too far off now. So, why don't I give a date already? Well, I won't until I'm sure it I can hit it, and here's a three reasons why:

One: it'll turn around on me.
Any date I mention now, no matter how much I emphasize that it's tentative, unreliable and might slip, will be a rock-solid date once word gets out, and when it does eventually slip, I'm gonna get roasted over it anyways.

Two: it's settling for less.
Any date mentioned now means feature lock. I might have a great idea for an extra scene, or an extension of an existing one, or expanding on the ending (in fact, I have a few ideas brewing on that), but I'll have to scrap all that and ship just what I can manage in the time remaining, maybe even cut some already planned content, because now there's a date and a roasting waiting for me, see point 1.

Three: what's the point, really?
We're not actually making business software, are we? There's no need to roll out so that major customer can go live before the next fiscal quarter. Neither is marketing breathing down our necks to hit that slot between two major competitor releases, or to have boxes on the shelves well in time for the holiday season.

In fact I'm not even a business, just a person making a game because I love to make a game, so what's the point of imposing a deadline if it'll only serve to reduce the quality and cause me grief (see 1+2).

But deadlines are great incentives!
Well, yeah, deadlines are a great incentive to focus the mind and push that extra bit. But really, the need to show some progress on the weekly progress update serves that purpose just fine without setting myself up for a reaming or endangering the quality of the end product, as a release date would at this time.

But there's a demand for a date!
Is there, all things considered? I'm sure everyone serious about games of any sort is trained by slick marketing machines to hype and rave and rage over release dates, because that's how the business is run and that's what you do.
I'm also quite sure most would understand why it this particular case, it might not be all that, and it's better to live in uncertainty just a little longer, until it's actually solid, for the exact reasons I outlined above.

There'll be a release date announcement in time. But not today.