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Sadly, that blog doesn't really arise to a reliable source. And neither is the blog that it references, which is decidedly non-committal about an exact date and essentially picks the day at random to serve as a date to have a 40th anniversary party, not to state it was the release date.
Because, as both blogs note, the game didn't really have a formal release date, as it kinda just trickled out. It's not like modern practice in media releases where there's a firm street date. What date would we actually use for D&D? The date the first copy was printed? The date the first copy was sold? What about the fact that the game was already being played by the original campaigns by the time of the first publication and early copies were given to those players? So to answer the original question, no, we don't have a date beyond early 1974. And I don't think we really need one. oknazevad (talk) 22:03, 15 October 2023 (UTC)Reply
Acaeum.com also proposes January 1974, and lists, among others, Jon Peterson as their source, just as Black Gate does. Maybe more officially, the Catalog of Copyright Entries. Third Series 1976: July-December, p. 1761, has an entry "Dungeons and Dragons ... 30Jan74...". I wonder why this appears in the 1976 volume. I assume this means D&D was registered for copyright on 30 January 1974, and the copyright was renewed in 1976. But we would need someone who knows better how to read the entries in this book to be sure. But this could be the reliable source we would want to see. That said, the arguments of oknazevad about there not being one "true" publication date still hold. Daranios (talk) 15:11, 16 October 2023 (UTC)Reply
It is mentioned directly under "later editions" and the film series is mentioned under "related products", how much more were you looking for? BOZ (talk) 12:07, 7 May 2024 (UTC)Reply