We’ve just received word that EB Games is now selling copies of Star Wars: The Old Republic in stores today across Australia.
After calling up a number of stores we’ve been told that copies of the game are available, but stock is limited. EB Games on George Street, Sydney had two copies come in this morning but informed us they “couldn’t hold them”.
According to the EB Games website, they are selling the game for $78.
Given that Star Wars: The Old Republic doesn’t have an official release date here in Australia (although Bioware has stated they are targetting March 1) we can only assume that EB Games is grey importing stock from Europe and selling them in store. This means that EB Games is selling copies of the game a full two months before the projected release date for the game here in Australia.
It seems as though EA, the local distributor for Star Wars: The Old Republic, is fully aware of the situation, but responded with a “no comment – as we are currently investigating the situation” when we spoke to them.
It’s a tricky one. Star Wars: The Old Republic is a huge release, and Bioware, as opposed to discouraging Australian users from importing copies, has actually encouraged it. It has assured Australian users they won’t be blocked from playing on US servers and even informed importers that they’ll be able to make the switch across to local servers when they’re set up.
It’s an interesting situation, and the first time in a while that such a big game release has been staggered so heavily across territories.
Cakesmith
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 9:50 AM*Gets popcorn*
Chuloopa
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 9:51 AMi’m actually most surprised that it’s EB doing it before any other store!?
NicF
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 9:52 AMWell now, this is an interesting turn of events. With no actual street date, they can hardly be accused of breaking that, but are there not import and resale legalities in question here?
Uncle Bob
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 9:56 AMNo legal issues here, grey importing was basically encouraged by the govt.
The issue they have is burning their relationship with EA.
Fenixius
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 10:01 AMNope. Just possible angst for their partner publishers or distributors.
Marcus
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 9:57 AMGave my closest EB a call just now, and apparently they imported copies for people who pre-ordered, and with that, the shops were given additional copies of the game for walk-in purchases.
EB games ya 2nd store
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 9:57 AMKnowing EB, you can expect a ridiculous price on it
Brendan
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 12:06 PMWhat, the $78 as quoted in the above story?
Dr Nic
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 9:57 AMMark, you’ve turned a boring day into something I cannot wait to see unfold!
Matt
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 9:57 AMI’m a little late to the game here so hoping you guys can help me out.
This means what exactly? The exact same game is being released early. So the only difference between this version and march release is??? Or are they just releasing the March version the same time as they get the Australian servers running?
To summarize, should I buy this now? :)
LinkageAX
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 11:17 AMyes, but this now
Daholk
Friday, January 6, 2012 at 5:34 PMBuy this game now!
NOW!
Aliasalpha
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 11:18 AMIf you want the game and don’t mind paying the eb markup rather than amazon importing, yes you should.
Daholk
Friday, January 6, 2012 at 5:25 PMImpirting the game from AMAZON UK with 5 day shipping costs $86, so actually you are getting it a bit cheaper than importing yourself.
Stephen
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 9:58 AMThey are most definately imports, not much of a suprise a majority of EB Games’ PC Games are imports with Australian classifications stickered over the prior.
Femto
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 9:58 AMI bet they arent selling at grey import prices!
Chuloopa
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 10:00 AMthat, my boy, you can count on
TemptFate
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 10:02 AMApparently selling for $78 – according to their website
TemptFate
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 10:04 AMyeah but its $50 from the UK
Cakesmith
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 10:02 AM$78 according to the website. It’s $69 on Amazon plus shipping so…
Chuloopa
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 10:14 AMThat;s actually pretty reasonable for an Australian pricing
Angelo
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 10:03 AMBam!
Val
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 10:18 PMYeah. Because they should sell it at the same price they paid to import it for. It’s not like they’re a business or anything and have to cover costs. AND… make a profit. How naughty.
Lobo
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 10:01 AMEB where I am (Central Vic) are selling today too. Although apparently they only have their pre-orders plus a couple extra.
There’s also an independent that has been selling for a while.
GAME on the other hand said they’re sticking to biowares date.
McGarnical
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 10:04 AMI saw SWTOR at a shop on Elizabeth St near the JB there the week before Christmas. It was around $90. Also heard that Dungeon Crawl on Elizabeth St was getting it in at around that time for around $85.
Mr Waffle
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 10:06 AMhaha 2 days after I got my copy delivered from zavvi, so yeah, grey imports! lol
ausfist
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 10:07 AMConfirmed: http://ebgames.com.au/pc-147860-Star-Wars-The-Old-Republic-Import-Version-PC
Piat
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 10:07 AMConfirmed at $78 which isn’t too bad, amazon is only $10 cheaper plus a wait and the only other way to get it much cheaper is through a cd key site, which is a gamble at best
PuppyLicks
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 10:13 AMI felt a great disturbance in the Australian retail sector…
McGarnical
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 10:14 AMEB is obviously the Empire.
Chuloopa
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 10:42 AMWell they’ve used their proverbial “Death Star” to blow that many indipendants out of the retail sector that it’s hard for them not to be
yrrnn
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 1:37 PM“Importing is our last hope.”
“No, there is another…”
Woods
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 10:13 AMI’m in Canada atm, heading home soon, got 2 copies for myself and a friend for 69 each, 78 aint bad.
Woods
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 10:17 AMJust realised i went comma-spastic then. Yikes.
D.C.
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 10:14 AMNow with a bonus single player mode? I’d be all over that. haha.
Cakesmith
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 10:16 AMMight I just say that everyone needs to get this game. It’s amazing. An MMO where I actually care about the characters. I might just have to do a reader review…to the typing machine!
Nate
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 10:38 AMBeing an MMO, I’m assuming there is a subscription fee?
Cakesmith
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 10:41 AMYeah, standard $14.95 a month. You do get 30 days when you buy the game though.
If the new content they add is as good as the release content I will be playing it for a very long time.
Aliasalpha
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 11:21 AMYeah same here. After playing 3 betas, as soon as the game asked how long I wanted for a subscription, I said 6 months and I very much doubt I’ll finish even a quarter of the game by that point. Normally that’d be indicative of shocking quantities of padding but in this game its all gold
Mr Waffle
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 11:31 AMIIRC-
$14.99/month if you buy one month
$13.99/month if you buy three months
$12.99/month if you buy six months
US Dollars that is. Can pay using paypal which I was glad to see.
Vaporeon
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 1:46 PMI don’t know if we were playing the same game… The characters didn’t really grab my attention.
Neo-Kaiser
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 10:53 AMWould Australian servers even be up now?
El Kapitan
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 11:22 AMNo NK, but BioWare said that when Australian servers go up, they will give Australian people the chance to switch over to them (I assume, free of charge). So the only reason not to buy right now is if you’re really not a fan of slight lag (i’ve heard it’s pretty smooth tbh), otherwise you’re just giving others 2 months headstart.
NegativeZero
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 11:45 AMNope, but ping times to West Coast US servers are ~150-250ms so it’s very playable without local servers anyway.
brettk
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 10:57 AMPhew almost bought a copy yesterday, glad I waited!
Dmoli
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 11:08 AMWell I think I will have to cruise down to the North Sydney EB at lunch and see if they have any around.
Edes
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 11:12 AMNo Aussie servers yet but the game is still really good; I get ping response times of 150-200 max.
Aliasalpha
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 11:27 AMDo you get occasional spikes where it jumps to something like 600-1000ms? Never for long but just enough to be noticeable
Mr Waffle
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 11:32 AMHaven’t seen that sort of thing yet but I’m still on the beginner planets. Hell I forget to turn torrents off and I’m still ~270 ping and it’s smooth as a baby’s backside
Edes
Friday, January 6, 2012 at 10:53 AMI did to begin with but that was on planets with huge populations in the early access. Since then I have also started using Reduce The Lag who now support SWTOR and I rarely get spikes. Maybe once ever couple of hours.
Overall I find the game really stable and have reached level 35 without too much heartache. In the early access
EJH
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 11:13 AMMyself and a bunch of other mates simply purchased cd keys keys and used the beta client from the final beta test so no additional download necessary, works perfect and loving the game.
Considering that physical copies of games these days have nothing more than a disc and a very light manual I don’t see much point in going physical and highly recommend the cd key route for anyone interested in grabbing this fantastic game.
Rob
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 11:20 AMPeople like you and I, however, EJH, seem to be in the minority. The majority of Australians wanting to play TOR got overly upset, wailed about “the red zone” and cried for months and months about it even though I, and others, would routinely tell them how to get themselves set for release, even the pre-release access, but not many followed the advice. Ah well, their loss!
Chris Lynn
Saturday, January 7, 2012 at 1:22 PMYou mean when EA wouldn’t commit to whether or not we’d be IP blocked? Gee, I wonder why people were wary and wanted actual answers.
Aliasalpha
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 11:25 AMVery light manual? No manual at all in this case.
Well okay there was what could technically be counted as a manual but it was a leaflet that could have been summarised as “put disc in drive, click ‘next’ until you can play”. When the manual takes up the same space as the coupon for getting 30 bucks off one of the statues (anyone want the code? I’ll never use it), its a sad day for manual lovers but especially me since the only reason I didn’t go the key route myself is because I wanted to have the manual…
Daholk
Friday, January 6, 2012 at 5:33 PM… yeah to this day there are still people complaining about “the Red Zone” I live in Perth and have been palying since the 13th of December. 150 pings (max 250) . I LMFAO at anybody who desperately wants this gaem and does not have it. After ordering my copy for $86 including shipping it arrived 4 days later. So EASY and I was playing a week early due to early gaem access. WINNING!
Wander
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 11:33 AMEJH, any tips on doing this?
Is the beta client still available? Where did you purchase a CD key from?
I’ve tried purchasing the game online but it’s blocked to Australia for the time being.
EJH
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 2:56 PMI still had the beta client from the AUNZ beta test back in like october/november and then the final beta push shortly before release which I simply gave to my mates on portable hard drive, so unless you live in the newcastle area I cant really help you sorry. However the full client can be downloaded once you have your account setup, so if you don’t mind the size of the download (my install is about 30gb) then there is no problem actually getting the game.
As for the cd key we all got ours from cjs keys for around $60 http://www.cjs-cdkeys.com the only issue i can say with that site is that the payment options were a pain, but the keys came in without a problem and were totally legit, 6 of us have bought from there now with no problems.
I also believe allcdkey.com is selling star wars keys, I haven’t got personal experience with them but i have heard good things.
ben
Friday, January 6, 2012 at 4:57 PMhttp://www.swtor.com/download to download the launcher, which will download the game its ~20GB I believe.
Zeruel
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 11:24 AMSo in March are we going to read stories about how early adopters of imported copies and keys WON’T be looked after?
Just asking.
Mr Waffle
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 11:34 AMBioware said on their forum they’re aware that aussies are importing and “will look into” letting us move to the oceania servers, so at least they’re considering it.
Daholk
Friday, January 6, 2012 at 5:28 PMBIOWARE hav announced that migrations is on their list of priorities for Oceania servers.
pixxpixx
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 11:30 AMI work for a Gametraders store.
This….is surprising.