When I said the other day “unless [DC Universe Online] is planning to start beta in July and launch in December – that’d be a rush – a launch before 2011 is unlikely“, I didn’t mean it as a challenge. However, in the final seconds of a recent video, Jens Anderson announced a November 2010 release date for DCUO on both the PC and PS3.
More info and new game footage to come out of E3 2010, but it’s interesting that a release date has been set before there has been any sort of large (or even small) scale public testing. Especially from SOE, who have theoretically done this before.
World Class Villains 
I guarantee you, somewhere in an exec suite at SOE, the accountants finally won.
Total cost to develop so far = X
Number of subscribers needed to recoup said costs in a reasonable time frame (say, inside five years) = Y
(some complicated maths later)
“You ship this November. Doesn’t matter if it’s half-done; just ship it.”
It’s easy to blame the accountants, but SOE and WB would have poured quite a bit of money in it over the 5 years of its development.
Everyone involved in DCUO on SOE’s side has some game development experience, if not MMO development experience. If DCUO is delivered sub-standard it will be the devs who deserve most of the responsibility. That they are treating the beta as a foregone conclusion is a concern.