I am assuming praying this would be their approach, provided everything goes according to the plan!! I think that Ross is currently not 100% clear with the release plan for Ashes, except the fact that they would not be able to release their game in the next 10 days.
If he declares his release date this coming friday, then that gives 505 Games a month to release their game before BigAnt's (again assuming that the planned release date is still a month after the marketing campaign). Ross is still giving us a hint that 'declaring (or not declaring) the release date does not mean that the release date will change'. This means that they are still looking at the same release date, but would not confirm it till maybe 2 weeks from release, i.e. the time window with which they can be 100% sure about the release/delay/price of AC13. If AC13 will be ready for release during this period at a lower price, then Ross would delay his game without much damage since he has not declared the release date.