is there a confirmed release date for mass effect?

I think the rumours for Mass Effect being released in september are unfortunatly true based on these comments from microsofts Shane Kim in an interview on Gameinformers.com. Speaking about Mechassault 2's release being too close to Halo 2's he says Kim: "We tried to move it into January, we tried to move it away a little bit, but in a sense we have to do titles that can at least stand up more. I mean, you're not going to beat Halo, you're not going to beat GTA. Not every title is going to be like that. Mass Effect is a title that I think is going to be able to stand up to that. There's going to be a lot of titles that are going to be overshadowed by Halo 3's blast radius, but Mass Effect is a title that I believe is going to stand up to that. MechAssault 2 had a hard time with Halo."

He seems to strongly indicate that sept will be when we'll see Mass Effect

The only thing official is "when it's done."

Anything else, just like the above guy said, is just speculation.