It appears when the CEO of RTW said beta would start next week he had jumped the gun a bit.

What they are willing to say officially over at RTW is that "they are so close they can taste it." Basically the way it sounds is some things are still buggie enough that they don't want to hand out 1,000s of beta passes and not have you be able to log in. So issues with the server, or account creation or networking would be my guesses (this is only speculation).

Anyways, they look forward to getting folks into beta as soon as possible. So once it's ready those who get selected will go right in, no extra delays.

Anyways, hope that relieves some of the beta anxiety around here.

I heard the keys started going out.

Yep, first wave went out late last night.

I did not get an invite =(

Me either, it were a very small wave. May have been EUs only too as I believe the server is still in the UK someplace.