What disappoints me is the lack of communication on the 'Official' forum :(

[Feuerfalke]

Reasonable, Bobb4.

I was not surprised that there was no official announcement on this years E3, as it was a shadow of the E3 that it used to be. IIRC there were just minor announcements for the whole business on this years E3, especially compared to the news on the gaming market that were published in the weeks before.
As many critics say, E3 2008 was insufficient in many regards, especially considering it was AFTER titles for this winter were announced. There may be informations on this years GamesConvention in Germany, considering UBISOFT is a European company, the former plans for a takeover of UBISOFT by an US-publisher and the later date offering some further options - but I won't place my bets on it.

Considering all the bits of information we have, I also agree that there will be no release in 2008. I don't know how much BoP has to do with it, as it's another publisher for the western world and another developer, but considering the history of IL2 and the circumstances, I bet UBI will announce and advertise the game a pretty short time before the release, only after it's perfectly clear what will be in and what not and at a stage where it's clear that competitors will not be able to benefit from that information prior to BoBs release.

[Bobb4]

And in the marketing game there is no such thing as bad publicity. And in any forum you will find arogant, self-rightious and idiotic people. (please note I do not exclude myself from this category)
Anyone who believes half of what they read in any forum need their heads read.
I am doggedly loyal to IL2 because I fly it daily online. On warbirds of prey or ADW or our own South African sgs servers I fly. On Ts channels I talk to flyers from all over the world and only one thing matters... "The moment that enemy plane drifts into your sights and you squeeze the trigger or the moment a wingman clears your six" ...Flying to live or living to fly you take your pick.
So if SOW never gets off the ground I will still be flying and if it does I will just be a happier flyer.

[Feuerfalke]

That's not that simple. As long as people keep bashing a person, they and the guy they flame are just forum-morons to any outsider, just as you said. Bashing the developer falls back on the community, the brand and the team and a lot of sources are very sensitive to that.