edit : people are going rampage, as expected xD Chill out guys ! It's only a guess game ! (and to be honest I don't really care about the release date, "when it's ready" does please me)

edit 2 : Debunked ! 

Originally posted by gaeanprayer

Considering that's the animation room, it's far more likely those are x,y,z coordinates for keyframing objects and limbs through 3d space.

--------------------------- original post ---------------------------

Could be wrong indeed, but this one matches a lot of realistic speculations :

From this picture : http://images.eurogamer.net/2012/articles//a/1/4/7/7/3/9/3/animationroom.jpg.jpg/EG11/resize/1280x-1

(I attached it in case of removal from eurogamer)

On the papernote on the left, above the "shiny ball", just zoom in 400%. You can see :

9 - 5 and what resembles to be 12. 9 - 5 - 12, aka 5th September 2012.

I wouldn't really give much attention to this date on a notepad, if it wasn't really fitting exactly what I thought the release date was for a long time now.

This would match a lot of realistic things :

- no release during summer when nobody's home.

- 5-6 monthes after the first public beta, just like GW1

- the realistic and necessary dev time to fix all those little things we saw during BWE, plus all the huge optimization work they have to do on graphics. Also let's not forget we didn't see more than 10% of the game during BWE, so there might be all the endgame to fix / fine-tune before release, in order to eradicate any possible bug.

- 5th sept is a wednesday, which could fit quite well to a headstart. And then release the krakken for the whole world to enjoy the game during week end.

I attached another pic where I hand drawn the guess. The 9 - 5 is clearly recognizable.

I've seen a lot of employees (or managers) in my previous jobs who wrote important milestone dates on a notepad like this, as a motivation booster. I did it myself for big projects. That's why I don't deny the possibility for it to be the release date (or some ultimate deadline date).

Finally : whatever this date means, I really can't see the game releasing before september. There are too many things to fix.

Originally posted by k-damage

 

That could be his wifes birthday and he didn't want to forget it.

don't see what you describe

I still have the felling that will be October/13/2012  8pm pacific

but if u are right man... it would be grt ! 30days ++ before my guess !!

That could be anything to be honest ;)

But even without this pic, september is far more realistic than summer or june. So this visual stuff kinda belong more to the speculation pool than other visual stuff. 

(Could also be a deadline for a final wrap up)

Originally posted by Amjoco

Originally posted by k-damage

 

That could be his wifes birthday and he didn't want to forget it.

LMAO

Don't EVER want to forget that.

Why would graphic designer / animator , keep release date written in his sketch notebook ?

He is probably going trough tens of notebook pages daily.

Originally posted by k-damage

Could be wrong indeed, but this one matches a lot of realistic speculations :

From this picture : http://images.eurogamer.net/2012/articles//a/1/4/7/7/3/9/3/animationroom.jpg.jpg/EG11/resize/1280x-1

(I attached it in case of removal from eurogamer)

On the papernote on the left, above the "shiny ball", just zoom in 400%. You can see :

9 - 5 

and what resembles to be 12.

9 - 5 - 12, aka 5th September 2012. 

This would match a lot of realistic things :

- no release during summer when nobody's home.

- 5-6 monthes after the first public beta, just like GW1

- the realistic and necessary dev time to fix all those little things we saw during BWE, plus all the huge optimization work they have to do on graphics. Also let's not forget we didn't see more than 10% of the game during BWE, so there might be all the endgame to fix / fine-tune before release, in order to eradicate any possible bug.

- 5th sept is a wednesday, which could fit quite well to a headstart. And then release the krakken for the whole world to enjoy the game during week end.

 

I attached another pic where I hand drawn the guess. The 9 - 5 is clearly recognizable. The 12 a bit less, but we already know it's coming in 2012. Plus the 2 is pretty readable.

 

Nice idea and everything - but whats the release date doing on a handnote?

My first guess was a Release around the 15th of JUNE - but now thats too unrealistic. July? Idk. I really have no clue.

They have too much to do, to release a propper title.

Dec 2012 imho.

looo.some guy did the same with more evident proves and the date was 28-06-2012. loool. 

that dates could be anything...

how can you take so serious a piece of paper with that kind of face draw and kickass wrote on..

Originally posted by k-damage

That could be anything to be honest ;)

But even without this pic, september is far more realistic than summer or june. So this visual stuff kinda belong more to the speculation pool than other visual stuff. 

(Could also be a deadline for a final wrap up)

Actually, 9-5-12 corresponds to 9th May, 2012 -- everyone knows that.  Watch for a big announcement today.

Hmm, I thought it were the testicles of a rosus colorum glassus bacteria drawing.

"-kickass"
followed by a redface / trollface
timenote
and a chilly drawing.

I'd say someone's was going to regret his dinner the other day.

Originally posted by DarkPony

Hmm, I thought it were the testicles of a rosus colorum glassus bacteria drawing.

It is, and the date must be his scheduled surgery to remove it.  

Or that could be the date of the end of the world!!!

Thats it!  GW2 is a front for a top secret compuer organization, whom, using complex matrices has decoded the destruction of the planet!!!

I would think you wouldn't need to write down the release date on a notepad, having it looming upon you, the date would be screaming at you constantly while they work so hard to complete their assignments. Who knows though, I'm not in a big hurry atm, I'm working grinding out money in GW1 to buy a bunch of crap for my 30/50.

I'd be interested to what's written on those marker boards to the right though.

Originally posted by 4bsolute

Nice idea and everything - but whats the release date doing on a handnote?

My first guess was a Release around the 15th of JUNE - but now thats too unrealistic. July? Idk. I really have no clue.

They have too much to do, to release a propper title.

Dec 2012 imho.

About he handnote : I've seen numerous milestone dates written on notepad in my previous jobs. And it could have been employees as well as managers.

Also, December is kind of overkill imo :) The hype would die before that I guess. September is perfect ^^

Could be today, or Sept 5. Could also be the day his kid goes back to school. Could be the day his divorce is supposed to be finalized, or the day he plans to do pretty much anything anyone does. /shrug.

Though that said, I do have to admit I expect the game to release closer to that date than earlier in the summer.

I doubt they will release during summer. If they won't release it until very beginning of July then I expected September. Didn't Anet say recenlty that they would like to have 1 beta weekend every month but it might be a little longer? After that I really started to think they have more fixing work then they anticipated so I doubt we will see  GW2 soon.

Originally posted by QSatu

I doubt they will release during summer. If they won't release it until very beginning of July then I expected September. Didn't Anet say recenlty that they would like to have 1 beta weekend every month but it might be a little longer? After that I really started to think they have more fixing work then they anticipated so I doubt we will see  GW2 soon.

Sadly, I would agree with this. I think their marketing machine will want a good couple of months to build the pre-release hype. No game releases immediately after announcing their date, they like a little lag, and so far there is no indicator we are even close to hearing a release date. I would expect a bare minimum of six weeks between release date announcement and the actual release, but even a bit more time than that.

So, minimum (imo)  at this point, assuming a BWE in May, and another in June, then we are looking at September at the earliest imo, but then I would expect a push back until October, there do not seem to be many releases in September...in line with what someone else said above.