Is there a date for when GM badges will be released? 

Nope!

The sort answer is soon, and before event registration goes live.

The longer answer is that I'm still working on event review, and, we don't make allocations until events are approved, since they are based on the number of player hours of active events.  There are some groups that have all their events approved now, but really not that many until the past week or so.  After Sunday, when the event list comes out, I'll turn to badge allocations in earnest, in the hopes to get most groups' GM badge allocations set up at least a week before event reg goes live.  Anyone who has events still in review at that time can also buy a badge and have it refunded after their allocation is created, and they are assigned a badge.  

Hope that information helps.  Basically, that process has to wait until most events are approved, and, many events are being finally approved this week, so there you go.

The Events Team is tired, but will endeavor to persevere.

Marian McBrine
Event Coordinator
Gen Con LLC

That totally answered my question. 

THANKS Marian!