.. well at EB Games at least. As we reported around a month ago, copies of SWTOR have been able to be purchased in Australia from a range of retailers. Initially it was all a bit ‘unofficial’, with initially you needing to ask if there were any copies out the back.

That’s well and truly out the door, as I discovered on walking into an EB  Games store today. There was the game and its little buddy the game time card, sitting there in the ‘Out Now’ section:

So all we need is the excuse for a party called the Launch, some Oceanic servers and I think we’re good to go. What do you think?

Following on from our earlier story, I took a walk at lunch-time to a suburban EB Games store and asked for a timeframe on copies being available. The friendly staff member confirmed they had copies for pre-orders, but that she would go and check if there were extra copies available. They were back within 30 seconds to confirm there were two copies available for sale immediately, one of which you can see in this blurry picture:

The price was $78. So the only uncertainty is why there’s stock without a launch date – seems that EA’s local distribution are definitely not on holidays but maybe haven’t realised there’s a launch date announcement to come. We’ve contacted EA’s Australian PR for comment.

UPDATE: We’ve heard back from EA Australia, who have stated they have no comment until they’ve investigated the situation.

UPDATE2: As posted in the comments below, some speculation on where these copies have come from:

When I picked it up, the staff member made a point of stating that it was not an Australian copy, but were special orders from their American business partners (I assume Gamespot). They seemed well aware of the March release date, and explained their own surprise when yesterday they recieved word that swtor shipments would arrive.

Interesting post over at Kotaku, where they’re reporting that some EB Games stores have copies of SWTOR.

If they do have them, it’s likely to be in limited numbers, but it’s an interesting scenario from a distribution viewpoint given the final launch date hasn’t been confirmed. We’ll be toddling off to our local EB Games store in an hour or two to try and photograph a copy grazing in the wild. Watch this space!