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Yup, that’s the official word from the LucasArts website. I will now join all of the Kiwi’s, Aussies and fans from other countries that were omitted from the official launch in mourning at this announcement.
As a journalist, I completely understand the logistics behind this decision but as a gamer and a HUGE fan of the Star Wars franchise, I am so annoyed and frustrated with this decision. To give you an indication of how much of a fan I am, wayyy back in 2007 when I was editor of Game Console magazine, I chose to put Darth Vader on the cover of the April issue! Personally, this game was the ONLY game I was genuinely hyped for. I’ve been writing about video games for a while now and to admit to this is a pretty big deal for me. Not many game releases get me as hyped as I was for this one.
The official forums are now deleting comments pertaining to this so gamers are going elsewhere to discuss it because clearly, they’re not allowed to display their emotions in the official forums. I thought that’s what official forums were for; the one place where you COULD discuss what you feel and thought about a game?!
If you’re wondering about whether or not you can pre-order the game, the word is that you can from various places such as Amazon and Origin but I’ve just been to BOTH of these outlets and they are BOTH sold out due to overwhelming demand!
If you’re in New Zealand you’ll receive a restriction from the Origin website which is obviously picking up your ip address and therefore blocking access. Amazon is currently telling customers they have no more stock and are looking at securing more of the Collectors Edition Bundle (which is really the one you want with all the special extra bits).
If anyone in New Zealand has been able to secure a copy, I’d love to hear from you (because you, my friend, are a very rare species indeed!)
Sweet, thanks Pebbles! Yeah, I was on the fence about the game after the whole preorder debacle here in NZ but I’m still hyped to play it
Gonna preorder very soon 
Did you join a NZ guild? I’m still keen to join a NZ based guild 
Both my partner and I secured a copy from gamestop.com to be delivered to NZ
Cool, thanks dude – checking it out now
http://torguild.net/oceanic/
Has a list of Oceanic targeted guilds.
Sweet, yeah, good to know there are ways around it
Speaking of, are there any decent NZ/Aus guilds at all? Gonna have to check out the forums!
Australian, and if they do implement CC blocking or IP blocking you can use a tunneler service ($6 Aus or so per month) to avoid IP block and by time cards online at US stores.
Thanks for that info Jason, much appreciated
Still kinda sucks – why would anyone keen to play wait that long 
Situation is stupid – but I can’t rage any more about it as much as I was looking so forward to playing this. I was going to make it the first MMO dedicated to playing a purely evil character…
Are you in New Zealand Jason?
Those in what the SWTOR forums are calling the “red zone”, i.e. the excluded half of the world, are able to import from select supplier and play. the game wont be released locally for some time (think months to a year or even more after NA and EU release).
At the moment there is no blocking of IP’s or international credit cards, so no need to jump through hoops to circumvent measures.
So play? Yes, if you import. Buy from your local retailer and play? No idea or information on when that will happen.
If you can actually pre-order – I checked both Amazon and Origin. Origin weren’t allowing you to pre-order at all and Amazon had completely run out of pre-order bundles. They’ll just IP block anyone that comes from outside of the pre-order countries (although some people have speculated that there won’t be any ip blocking, just no pre-orders).
I checked Amazon later today and they are now taking more pre-orders for their new stock coming in… still nothing confirmed on whether or not we can actually play IF we pre-order from outside of Europe/USA.
we’ll still be able to play right? just not pre order….