Vyvyan Basterd
Adventurer
I still think they should have made those as two separate announcements, maybe a week apart. By making them together it gives the appearance that they weren't really ready to announce the playtest yet but had decided that they had to throw something out there to distract us from the bad news.
I think if they weren't ready to announce the playtest yet, the news of Monte leaving forced their hand. The "Monte Leaves" thread was rampant with speculation that he left because they decided to skip the open playtest altogether, some even suggesting that 3E reprints coming out in Sep 2012 were covering up the actual release of 5E.