This may come off a bit cliche... but their is the alternate Blizzard Model (Yes, I know blizzard isn't the only one doing this)... Blizzard has tended towards

This may come off a bit cliche... but their is the alternate Blizzard Model (Yes, I know blizzard isn't the only one doing this)... Blizzard has tended towards the "It will release when it's done" model in the past.. and recently with Diablo 3 their model had been identical until the very end where they cut half (maybe less than half but it felt like it) of the game out of the final deliverable to decide when they were going to deliver (They cut the pvp content though they intend to add it back later). In this way I think blizzard provides a good counter example for A) Setting deadlines at the beginning and B) Not shipping whatever is done.