While most of the reasons given for these end of year delays are just garbage, in a way, I'm kinda glad. There's so many excellent titles released leading up to Christmas, and some fall through the cracks. I'm still playing catch-up from last year! ... Kinda pissed about having to wait for Bioshock 2 though.

I've been waiting over a year for my Half-Life 2: Episode Three now. What gives, Valve?
maybe they should stop focusing so much on dlc for tf2/l4d

See, battle.net is a great online gaming service, and I can fully believe they want to make it completely better and have starcraft 2 be the flagship game. Blizzard has always had a "when it's done" policy, and something as ambitious as battle.net 2 probably needs more work than just playtesting and balancing, like their other games. Considering we will most likely have matchmaking, cross-game communication and a download system( like steam ) with the new battle.net, i'd rather make sure that's completely polished and good so it's not like the Steam launch with Half-Life 2.
http://www.edge-online.com/news/starcraft-ii-delayed
And Activision doesn't quite know what things to say and not say in public:
http://www.edge-online.com/news/activision-ceo-would-like-to-raise-game-prices-even-further

Battle.Net will be offering an online store like Steam? Interesting, I wondered why there was an option to add CC details.
Oh and Activision are a company on the brink. They honestly haven't a clue. I would happily be the one to push them over it.

So long as you aren't required to use Battle.net for anything other than multiplayer gaming.

Activision are everything people complain about EA being.

Delay everything, hell make fewer games.
Players, consumers, gamers, whatever you say, WE ARE ALL OVERWHELMED!
I love the year on year quality, but I don't have the time or money to get everything and there is plenty worth getting in every genre.
Usually I have either time or money but rarely the right balance between the two.

At least EA are trying to change their image. The EA Download Manager is actually nice to use and getting Frank Klepacki back to do the music for RA3 was an attempt to heal the wounds they tore open when they closed Westwood.
Activision for some reason actually hate their customers, they treat every paying customer as a thief. High prices, extremely poor support and non-existant patches to broken games. Activision are everything that is wrong with PC gaming.

I actually completely agree with you. Hey, I understand why there's so much acrimony towards EA...they earned it. However, they do seem to be trying to make some good changes.
Meanwhile, Activision and Ubisoft seem to be having a race to determine who can reach the finish line first to be named 'Biggest Douchebag Game Company'. And unfortunately, so many people are still totally focused on EA that neither of them is getting the level of scorn they deserve.

I guess they'll just have to try harder, that's what everyone needs to do if they want to get some award and are not yet good enough, right?