I'd like to know how they changed the content to accomodate 1000s v. 8 players. Also, presumably(haven't been following this one that closely as soon as they started blathering about subscriptions) the original multiplayer would likely not have been persistent, but also, presumably, the 1000s of players MMO play WILL be persistent. Is this their grand subscription thing then, perhaps? As in you only get the 1000s of player MMO aspect IF you subscribe to some monthly service?
As to the software development, I'd guess it's more likely that they have a client development team, the server development team, and a content development team that actually make the nuts and bolts of the game itself. If they had a setup like that it would, presumably, mean that both the server and content teams were ahead of schedule as both of those would HAVE to be involved in going to a 1000s of players format as that's just a huge change.
Any odds on how far the delivery date will be slipped in the end?