Available IN STORES...

Stores will have it on shelves (if they have stock) as soon as they can put it there. It's shipping before the 21st, if I recall correctly, and that date is simply the day they are allowed to put it on the shelves. It's pretty normal for games to do that.

Best Buy opens at 10am, so you should be able to find it on the shelves at that time. Unless they haven't received their shipment yet.

im going to best buy which is across the street from my school at 1 when i get out

The intent is for it to be on store shelves on the 21st, as far as I know. That said, what stores (and stores' distribution warehouses) do with the game once Stardock sends it to them is up to them. So expect the 21st, but as with any game, it would still probably be a good idea to phone before you head down (unless you have lots of spare time and gas ).

- Ash

That's what I had assumed, but after my bad experience with Civ 4... shudder.

Don't even get me started on how frustrated I got trying to get my hands on a copy of Civ 4... the memory of that experience had a lot to do with why I've already preordered GalCiv and predownloaded most of the game files.

Then Brad had to go and half-ruin the effect by deciding not to release the final download files until mid-afternoon Tuesday. He's a horrible, horrible man.

- Ash

As much as I hate to say it, I don't think it gets shipped until the 21st, so I wouldn't expect it in stores until the 23rd at the earliest, at least thats what I have seen with pc games, the date released is the ship date. I could be wrong, but I doubt it.

I haav always found games at EB the day after ship date.... if this holds true, I wll pck up my pre-ordered copy on the 22nd.

I went to EB today to order they told me that officially the game ships on the 21st and arrives between 10am and 3pm on the 22nd. I don't think anyone will get it any quicker in stores than that as EB is quite up to date about getting the titles when they say they will. Good Luck to us ALL!

Here in Canada, EB is also listing it as available only on the 22nd.

I work at Best Buy and checked on my stores order status about two weeks ago, back then GCII didnt even show up in the system, that is REALLY wierd, even small releases and delayed releases usually show up in the system way before release. I'll check again today (Sunday) since I'm going in at 1pm. One side note though, most Best Buys have gotten very slack with most PC games, only the most hyped releases get a release day appearance on shelves, if all goes as it has been, it probably wont be there until the tues after the 21st. Thats how alot of the games I've wanted have been released.

When the game will appear is pretty variable based on where the store is located, etc. The warehouse is somewhere in Ohio, so retailers close by should have it sooner.   When in doubt, though, call your local store first. The game should be available in NA by Thursday at the latest.