Yeah, I got that feeling as well.
They do seem quite close to finished with the game though, they’ve shown a lot of it in the recent months.
My guess is that they delayed it to ensure that the previous online multiplayer support that was supposed to come with a post-launch update, now is there day one. Which does sound a lot smarter to me :)
Predicted 15+ million lifetime-sales for God of War:
- http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=234612&page=1