Neowin.net reports that a MS DirectX 9 Beta Admin had this to say: We have not released the ship date to any outside source. You [beta tester] will first be notified in the newsgroups as soon as it is released and before it is publicly available on Microsoft.com. The dates you have seen on the Inquirer web site such as 12/11 or 12/12 are speculation. This includes the final date of 12/19. At this time, we are working hard on the final stages of DirectX 9.0 and plan to release it to you as soon as possible.