Josiah
I agree. When you tell somone you'll have something ready by a certain date you should make good on it. And if it's not going to be on time, dont wait until midnight to tell them it's going to take a little bit longer.
1. Release & Betas
The object of the beta is to iron out as many possible problems and be sure that the product is stable enough to release. This follows Alpha testing which is usually far more intense.
Unless a beta is stable and release complete - NO announcement should be made that it is up for release.
2 Upgrading the release
I gotta ask the question, why? If the release works, add 'new' features not destined for or completed by the release date in a patch or upgrade download.
Holding back a product because of 'I got another idea for it!' can be very damaging. Unless of course you say it was to add extra features and it was in fact a bug-fix.
3. Bugs, Bugs and More Bugs
Every piece of software has them, nobody likes them, virtually everybody has them! (Hands up if you own an OS by Microsoft, Linux, Beos etc)
The issue here is how bad are they? If PFX2 is witheld due to bugs, then why place a release date? But if Gray's comments on the beta were anything to go by, the beta was nowhere near the complete game, and that would mean that the Beta Test was too close to the release date......be interested in an answer to this as I used to Beta Test for Electronic Arts in the UK, and currently co-author/Alpha/Beta Test PDA software.
4. Customer Confidence
It goes without saying that being proactive is the best way to deal with wavering faith in a product, patch, update etc.
If you are having problems, tell the customers, but not at the last minute. Post on the forum from time to time letting them know how its going - nobody can knock you if you do that.
Please CL listen to your forums, and at least respond to some of the issues.
Remember, these are the people buying the software and not ripping it off, give and take and you can have the best advertising in the world - Word of Mouth!
A little more info on what is happening would not go amiss....
Regards
Bob