I don't think they've got it right yet

The major online retailers (Gamestop, Amazon.com, etc.) are making a new guess at when World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King will be released. If you go to your game pre-ordering store of choice, they'll tell you the game will be out November 3. Now - while it does fall within the time range that Blizzard gave us of "Q4 2008", I don't think it's right for several reasons.

One, Blizzard hasn't hinted a thing about when it might be released, and if you're familiar with how they operate - the major retail chains won't have a clue until that happens.

Two, I fully expect the release date to be announced by Blizzard at BlizzCon, which is October 10th-11th. While some companies may be comfortable only giving their customers one month notice when their game will be released (see Mythic Entertainment's Warhammer Online), Blizzard isn't traditionally that way. November 3 is a little close to BlizzCon for my tastes.

Three, if you're going to have a major release in the last two months of the year, why have it as far from the gift-giving holidays as you possibly can? For just the same reason that all the Hollywood Blockbuster movies around this time are around Thanksgiving and Christmas, so too is November 3 too early.

And finally, November 3 is a Monday. Traditionally speaking, big name games are released either on Tuesday or Thursday. (Don't ask me why, because I don't know.) I think this speaks to the fact it's just a guess more than anything else. Some executive somewhere said... "I don't know... the first Monday in Novembe?"

In the end, we know from past experience that we won't know the release date until Blizzard tells us the release date. And the one thing I feel sure enough to put money down on is that bit of information will be announced at BlizzCon.

For more information about BlizzCon, please check the Official BlizzCon site.