I pre-ordered cd-rom from Gamestop. Get the automated call, Monday. Call Gamestop to find out all they received were dvds. Called around to all the other Gamestops, around town, same thing. The last word I got from them was that they were expecting their cd-roms, possibly Thursday.
Called a bunch of EB's and one of them had three copies of the cd-rom and they were, obviously, all reserved for pre-orders. Decided to get out and ran around to various other places. All had dvd-rom and no cds. I found out at CompUSA that their cd-rom versions were to be in "in the afternoon" (it was already past 1pm).
Finally, I thought, what the hell, I'll stop at BestBuy on my way home (in 10 years, they've almost never had a game I'm looking for on the day of release). Lo and behold, as I was about to give up, a BestBuy guy asked me if he could help with anything. Told him what I was looking for and he points to a little spot on the bottom shelf, way towards the end of the aisle. There were 3-5 copies on the shelf. The one on top, cd-rom. I thanked him and explained what was going on and he grinned and replied something about how they weren't supposed to put them out until the 13th or the 15th, I didn't hear which, but they did anyhow. I don't know what that means or why, but that's my story.
I realize that dvd-rom is probably "standard" these days, but I have to imagine a large number of players still have cd-roms. I can imagine another wave of subscribers, as soon as the cd-rom versions start showing up in stores (South and West suburbs of Minneapolis, at least).
P.S. There was also a "tin" of the Collector's Edition on the shelf, at BB, as well.
Edited, Wed Nov 10 23:54:50 2004 by hannibus