Mass Effect: Andromeda release date: March 21, 2017

I'll understand if the game needs more time but I hope like hell that it's a Q1 2017 release. It's one of two games I'm anticipating for the beginning of next year.

GDI?

Grunt Did It? 

They probably have no confidence in Mac Walters's delusional progress reports. "Everything is going according to plan, yup! More polish coming up."

I like that they're saying it but I'm dumbfounded because it's so backwards of EA to do compared to what usually happens. To me it could signify the management at EA is not confident in how the development they're overseeing at BioWare is going.

EDIT: I realize that was an extremely dumb thing to say. It could just as well signify BioWare told EA to put the word out or that EA have gotten friendlier.

Probably. In all honesty I've always had a guess as to what polish meant as far as video games, but never really knew the exact process. This article is quite old, seven years at least and so things may have changed, but it seems that the polish stage can be, to an extent, quite fluid. And honestly, has there ever been a BW game that wasn't delayed? Delays seem to be a fixture in gaming. When Bethesda announced Fallout 4 would release on 11/11/2015 I had to wonder when it would really come out.

For the millionth time, Amazon puts placeholder dates. They cannot know the release date before it appears on Origin.

I don't think Ubisoft uses unionized voice actors so I don't think that is an indication of what might happen to other studios because of the voice actors strike.  Now I am not saying it might not happen for BioWare can chase trends of people keep saying "they want it to be more like my favorite game" since they feel that is the direction people want the game to go.  I think Inquisition is a good example of that for after Dragon Age 2 there were a fair number of people saying things along the lines of "Bethesda should be given the Dragon Age IP because they are the only ones that know how to make RPGs", it wasn't as common as the reused area comments, but it was there.

Now there might be some sacrifices if the strike continues too close to the release of their next game and EA decides they cannot wait any longer, but I think that is still easily a year or two away.  I think the big changes will be in the games where the story isn't as important as a RPG and they will work to minimize the costs of voice acting.

December 2017 would be WAY too late.

They already start to go very loud about their game and generally companies like to start to build up the interest in their games about 4-6 months before the release.

Seems to me that they'd like to release the game in that quarter (before the end of March)
but they want to get closer to the date before announcing it, rather than announcing the date and having to shift it if necessary.

DAI slipped 6 weeks, a decision announced 76 days before the original launch date.

Seems to me that once they hit 100 days out from launch, they need to be making that date public (we're 112 days out from March 21 now).
If we hear nothing before the end of the year, then I think April or May become more likely.

I'm not opposed to a May-June release if they think they need a couple of extra months to polish the game and nail it how they want it.
Ultimately people will cry if the game is post-poned but will cry harder if it gets a bugfest release with obvious massive patches incoming immediately after. Personally if they need more months then they should take them. I'm ok with a summer release if it will happen. Did the same with TW3 and was totally worth it.

I think EA would prefer Financial Year 2016/17 Q4 (Jan-March)
But they won't risk a bug-fest and BioWare have the licence to make that call and delay the game into Financial Year 2017/18 Q1 (April-June) if required.

In the scheme of things, a few weeks is no biggie...

If a release date isn't announced at or during the Game Awards I'm going to be very worried. This is the perfect time to announce it.