That's very difficult, I think, for developers to simply not have a date (either target, or release). Gaming has become such a huge industry with such huge amounts of money changing hands that publishers have started to demand dates from the developers. I'm sure that all devs would rather say (when question on when the game will be ready): "When it's ready". It's the suits who force the announcement of dates and cause the critics to start howling, and who do they howl at? Devs.

Always blame 'The Man' because it's usually His fault.