Addressing game confirmations and release dates

Question

The topic of upcoming game releases has been discussed before and community opinion seems to favor "don't allow such questions". However, this doesn't seem to have made its way to a FAQ response or any official documented policy, so I'd like to touch upon this again and bring in questions about game confirmations.

A user asked recently whether development of a game had been confirmed. My gut reaction was to flag the post for a few reasons:

• The answer doesn't really aid the community.
• The answer is not one that can be accepted as static in the general sense.
  • If the game has not been confirmed, it might be confirmed in the future (thus changing the accepted answer).
  • If the game has been confirmed, it's likely not something that would need to be verified by a Q&A site.

I tend to view the release date questions in the same way:

• If the date is unknown, it may be known in the future (thus changing the accepted answer).
• If the date is known, it could change.
• If the game has been released, the point is moot.

In my desire to flag these questions and see them closed, am I enforcing an agreed-upon community policy, or is this one of those topics that are "up for grabs/a matter of opinion/something we're likely to enforce inconsistently and confuse new users about"?

Answer 1

Asking about release dates of future titles is both localized and speculative and should not be allowed - even if the company made an official declaration, that is not binding - many, many games were released long after their official release dates.

Asking about whether the game is in the works is too localized and should not be allowed - that question is only interesting until the game is released.

Asking about release date of already-released games is just too basic and should not be allowed - it can be easily found in many websites that specialize in storing game information.

In short, I personally really do not like these questions :) I mean yes, it may be something important and interesting for many users, I just don't think they belongs here.

Answer 2

Consider, too, how utterly useless such questions are in time.

Who in 2010 cares about a question in 2005 about the release date of, say, Quake 4?

Answer 3

I don't think this can be allowed because if it is still rumour or unofficial then there will be different answers depending on the source and could cause argument if an answer is said to be wrong because the two users are using different sources.