I know it's probably too early to predict an approximate release date without a thousand flames and arguments.

So can anyone tell me when it started being developed?

- Phos

I'm not positive, but I think they did say they were shooting for a release by the end of this year.

They started in earnest about a year ago according to some reasonably informed individuals.

The release date they are currently talking about is winter of 2008. So expect to see it next spring.

So, just two years of development? That's fast, isn't it? Is this a good sign or a bad one?

They say - release 2H 2008

I say end 2008

As for good or bad? It is basicaly not built from ground up. The fondations are allready there...so it was surely a shorter development process

First I heard of it, was Late06 or Early 07, But there was just rumors of overhauling the original game.

Well they were able to just lift the old flight engine from the game they had made previously.

SInce JGC has been out since 2001, and was started on in 1999 I guess you could say this version of the game was started 9 years ago, if that makes the timeline feel better to you.

The various perspectives already given in this thread are reasonably valid, since development timelines can end up being rather fluid, and Jumpgate Evolution is indeed not being generated from thin air.   The product gained a great deal from the foundation of the original Jumpgate, but there were also many things from the original game that have had to be thoroughly rewritten as development of Jumpgate Evolution has progressed.

To answer the OP's main question, though, we've said publicly (so it's safe for me to say): (a) the plan to develop Jumpgate Evolution began to form in summer 2006 (b) Hiring and development work began in earnest in the last months of that year.  Presently, JGE work has been ongoing for a solid 14 months or so, though the team size began much smaller than the current 10 individuals.

Since this game has gotten some attention lately my guess is that ND don't just wanna remake the original game. I think they will add lots of new things instead and make the game more user friendly in order to satisfy a wider audience. This will lead to a postponed release date i'm afraid. Sometime in 2009 sounds more likely than 2008 to me.

Rest assured, it'll be delayed.  Games (almost) always are.  But, if it's for the right reasons, then it's a good thing.  MMO's take a long time to develop, but not as long as they used to.