Via CliffyB's blog:
My job as designer of Gears of War is, well, more or less done. I can't speak to the status of gold or shipping but those of you familiar with development know that at a certain point you've just got to let your baby get on the school bus and hope for the best.
The days of shipping a game and hopping on a plane for someplace warm to get the heck away are long gone. I've got a busy few weeks ahead of me filled with promotional events; a pair of them in everyone's favorite town of LA. Microsoft knows they're not launching a game anymore, ever since the smash of Halo 2 I think they've realized that they're launching entertainment itself. It's not just a game, it's a ******* EVENT.
Let the hype machine burn into overdrive!
In today's ADD afflicted society - the 15 to 35 year olds - the most valuable thing one can tap into is mental cycles. The rest of entertainment is desperate to learn what it is that videogames have that thrills this generation. Network television is unsure of what to make of DVRs, Itunes, and Youtube. It was only a few years ago that reality TV was taking over until, surprise, well crafted shows such as LOST came and showed the way out.
Gaming is an extremely powerful medium because it captures hundreds of hours of the target generation's mental cycles. Images, music, characters, etc... Mental cycles = money and everyone wants a chunk of this new, sexy medium. I love being a part of this. I love the forum love as well as the hate, I love the studio "rivalries" that gamers make up, I love my repetitive stress injuries.
And right now I'm about to love myself some ************* rest before getting on yet another plane to the West Coast. 
Got to love CliffyB right? He sure doesn't pull any punches. Well, in any case, this is not an official "gold" annoucement obviously, but CliffyB's part is done, to me that more or less screams "The game is done, now let's go party in Mexico" - then again, maybe not.
