[Update] The lack of pre-order availability in regions of the world outside of North America and Europe has since been confirmed by Bioware. Get the details over here . [End of Update]

So you live in South Africa and want to pre-order Star Wars: The Old Republic? Or perhaps you’re in another region of the world that isn’t North America or parts of Europe?

You’re out of luck, I’m afraid, because only “certain regions worldwide” are currently able to pre-order EA and Bioware’s upcoming online RPG.

If you visit EA’s Origin digital distribution service, in an effort to pre-order Star Wars: The Old Republic, you’ll be told:

“Star Wars: The Old Republic is not available in your region”

To maintain a high quality of service, only certain regions worldwide will be able to pre-order Star Wars: The Old Republic.”

In addition, and in a press release sent out earlier today announcing the available pre-order offers for The Old Republic, Bioware’s Dr. Ray Muzyka revealed that one of the methods of delivering this high quality service is limitting the supply of Star Wars: The Old Republic at launch and at retail “to ensure that players easily transition into the servers.”

It’s not yet clear whether retailers in South Africa (and other unfit nations) will be carrying pre-orders for The Old Republic, but as it stands, we’re being denied access on Origin.

We’ll try to find out from EA South Africa as soon as possible what pre-order offers we will have access to in the future so we, too, can get into the beta test weekends and receive extra content.