BioWare's Courtney Woods has just announced on the official forums that the game is now available for pre-load to anyone who has redeemed their pre-order code. Check out the Dev Tracker quote below, or visit the official site for the full announcement. Stephen Reid also clarified the announcement on Twitter, and notified the community that the Early Access section of the Preorder FAQ had changed.
In addition to moving the start of Early Access up to December 13th, the FAQ notes that there will be no "grace period" for preorder purchases; when Early Access ends (just before launch at 12:01 AM EST on 12/20), the servers will go down for a short time, and when they come back up all players will be required to enter a Product Registration Code in order to continue playing. Check out the FAQ for more details, and look for quotes from Stephen Reid after the jump.
UPDATE: You can now preload the game if you pre-ordered by visiting the SWTOR official website and following the instructions listed in this post.
Courtney WoodsEarly Game Access* for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ is only a few days away! Starting December 13, 2011, The Old Republic will begin emailing invitations to start your Early Game Access. Invitations will be sent throughout the Early Game Access period offering rolling access to the game in the order in which you redeemed your Pre-Order Code, so be sure to check your email inbox!
To ensure that players can get into the game as quickly as possible when their Early Game Access begins, we are now allowing everyone who has redeemed a Pre-Order Code at our Code Redemption Center to pre-load the game to their computer.
In order to download the game client before Early Game Access begins, you need have already logged into your account and redeemed your Pre-Order Code. Once you have done this, you can download the game client by clicking on “My Account” in the upper-right of the window and then click “Pre-Order.” On your Pre-Order page, click the large button that says “Download Game Client” to begin download of the game!
Read More
Stephen Reid also clarified the announcement on Twitter:
Stephen ReidNo, December 13th is not a typo.
Early Game Access *starts* on December 13th. Emails will be sent on the day you get access.
Yes, this is different from previously advertised. I'll post in Forums later with more details.
He also notified the community about the changes to the Preorder FAQ:
Stephen ReidRemember when I said there would be an FAQ that I wanted you to read? Here it is - please read it: bit.ly/o1lhnl
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 12/13/2011 4:59:16 AMEuropean: December 13th, 12:00PM GMT, anyone know if this is UK GMT or the EU +1 hour ahead
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 12/12/2011 5:05:22 AMMy code redemption history says I entered my preorder code on the 12 March 2011. I do remember typing that in long ago, but i read some posts of people saying that preordering only started in July?? Can anyone clarify that for me? I should get in on the 13. right?
Greetz
CODE REDEMPTION HISTORY
Below is a list of valid Star Wars: The Old Republic codes that have been redeemed under this account.
12.03.2011
Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ Early Game Access: Ready to patch
12.03.2011
Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ Standard Edition Pre-Order
Edit: And yes i realize that you Americans use some weird date format. But it also says that it is the 12.03.2011 on the German and French version of the site. So it should be the 12. March??
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 12/12/2011 11:38:06 AMMine says:
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 12/12/2011 10:12:08 AMIf it is going by the standard American way of posting dates, then it is month/day/year, personally I think that international businesses should start avoiding this kind of confusion by using 3 digit abreviation for dates
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 12/10/2011 9:22:27 PMOk Origin will be shipping out on 16th confirmed threw Stephen Reids twitter feed !!!!! A small glimmer of hope lets hope EA lets the rest of the retailers ship out earlier.
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 12/10/2011 11:50:21 AMHey all again just curious if anyone has heard any News updates on the great grace period debacle. I spoke with Origin and EA several times yesterday to express my concerns about how i feel it was a bit unfair. They were very helpful and responsive I'm not sure how true it is but at one point the EA/Origin customer rep told me that they would be able to ship a few days earlier then the 20th so that way we all who ordered our Physical copies would have them for launch. Like to give a big shout out to Stephen Reid who has been Hammered with this since everyone realized what was happening. I would like to see some more POSITIVE SUPPORT about the issue on the sites.
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 12/10/2011 12:12:20 AMCan we get a "Dec 20th launch day, Will you be there" featured post up please?
Come on support fellow gamers...
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 12/9/2011 6:56:39 PMCan I be a smug european for the first time in SWTOR history?
=D
My youtube channel - SW:TOR content
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 12/8/2011 5:05:41 PMI love the hate, the anger, the tears about the lack of a grace period.
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 12/10/2011 12:16:15 AMYou'll make a fine Sith... Meanwhile back in the real world... :P
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 12/8/2011 4:09:09 PMWow, order the ridiculous priced CE and we will not get a grace period, have to wait for the box to show up. There goes two of my days off.
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 12/8/2011 1:48:18 PMNo grace period is straight up mean. No other MMO that I have played has done this to pre-order/early access.
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 12/8/2011 10:30:37 AMI dropped the ball and placed this question in a quote before. With early game access ending on the 19th and the game starting on the 20th. For those of us who ordered the CE threw origin how will we get our regular game access is that something were gonna have to wait for when the actual package comes or will there be some sort of email ? just curious and trying to plan accordingly. Also big shout out to all the darth hater and bioware teams for keeping us in the loop this whole time I'm grateful it made the wait well worth it !!!!!
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 12/8/2011 1:50:07 PMNo grace period means that you will have to wait till you get your physical box from the shipper.
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 12/8/2011 9:46:11 AMseriously, they won't have any grace period at all?!
Bit of a 'fuck you' to anyone who did not pre-order through Origin...