At E3 2000, Molyneux gave a precise release date: 23 September 2000. The game was supposed to reach the alpha stage by 18 June, but by summer, it became clear that development was behind schedule, and the release date was pushed back to 10 November. In September, it was pushed back again into 2001, angering fans who were eagerly awaiting its release. Molyneux apologised for the delay. By September 2000, every Lionhead member had their faces digitised for use on villagers. Villagers were auctioned online at QXL, with all proceeds going to the National Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children. The team were surprised when the first one sold for £450, and the fourth one for over £1000. By October, Lionhead were operating around the clock to reach alpha. Shin Kanaoya of EA Square came to discuss the Japanese localisation, which was considered difficult due to the requirement of the use of two-byte characters to display the Japanese writing system, particularly the 20,000 Kanji characters, which would have posed RAM management issues. Lionhead were considering using the Japanese fonts included with Windows. In September, there were "dozens" of fansites about "Black & White". By November, there were around 150. Molyneux later said that "Black & White" was amongst the first video games to have fansites, and that Lionhead were accused of over-promising when the sites described features the game did not have when shown.