Two things, and I apologize because it’s normally rude to poke so sharply, but I just had to:

1. RPS put up this blurb on their site, and then quickly pulled it down: “The Warhammer Online open beta isn’t far off. It’s so close, in fact, that pre-ordering for the retail version of the game will commence today at 3pm, or thereabouts. If you want to get a guaranteed place in the beta then keeping an eye on the WO site is a pretty good idea. Pre-ordering also gets you a couple of rare in-game items, while the slightly more plush (and pricey) collector’s edition will come with a unique Games Workshop figurine, a book filled with luscious artwork, a graphic novel, and - rather more importantly to the gamer - in-game quests that can only be undertaken by collector’s edition owners. Not a bad little package.” Yay pre-orders!
2. TenTonHammer has started doing something almighty dumb. They’re offering ‘premium’ content behind a subscription wall. Case in point, coverage of the WAR Collector’s edition just mentioned above, and a ‘better’ version of Mythos trailer. Guys - this is retarded. C’mon, Gamespot doesn’t even do this with their subscription. They just offer extras and higher quality video. I’m never, ever going to pay you to see news. Ever. It’s going to be all over the internet very, very soon anyway. You can’t keep anything locked up forever. Hell, your subscriber Mythos video will probably be on YouTube by the end of the day. The Collector’s edition info will be released by EA Mythic at some point. This is a bad idea, kind of staggering in its hubris. I paid for Gamespot two years ago, when it was -almost without exception- the finest source for videogame news in the US. You, sir, are no 2006-era Gamespot.

I even wonder if perhaps 1 and 2 aren’t related? Mayhap RPS pulled down the post because EA gave TTH a timed exclusive, and got tweaked when they saw Jim’s post? If so, I’m going to go ahead and say that’s pretty dang stupid too.

Update: Of course, maybe it’s because of the NEW delay, putting WAR out to autumn. Oh mans …

Update 2: Radar notes in the comments that apparently the WAR news being behind the price barrier was a glitch. Which is good!