A day or two ain’t so bad. Really, Ubisoft and Massive are only a few hours away from launching one of their most anticipated video game titles in some time, and a brand new IP at that. Tom Clancy’s The Division finally arrives on March 8, but there are a few things both studios want you to know before hand.

According to Massive, it is now possible to pre-load digital purchases of The Division on Xbox One and PC. The option will be available to PlayStation 4 users on March 6 — March 8 if you live in Japan. You’ll be looking at a file size between “26.9 to 34.4 GB depending on your platform and region,” says Massive.

But when do you actually get to play? Well, that’ll happen at the following times for digital versions of the game:

• “Xbox One will be available on March 8 at 00:01 am in each country’s local time (00:01 am EST for USA and Canada).”
• “PlayStation®4 will be available on March 8 starting from 00:01 am in each country’s local time (00:01 EST for USA and Canada).”
• “PC will be available worldwide on March 8 at 6 am CET / 12 am EST / March 7, 9 pm PST.”

For physical versions, check out these times:

• “Xbox One and PlayStation®4 will be available as soon as the servers open on Tuesday, March 8, 00:01AM Australian Eastern Daylight Time (AEDT) (March 7 at 2 pm CET/8 am EST/5 am PST)”
• “PC will be available worldwide on March 8 at 6 am CET/12 am EST/March 7, 9 pm PST”

Naturally, there’ll be a ton of updates that have been made to the game since last month’s Open Beta. All of those are highlighted in the notes below:

THE DIVISION DAY ONE PATCH NOTES

Appearance Menu Has Been Updates

• Now displays as a grid making it much easier to browse items
• “Outfit Sets” option added to quickly equip all the items in a set
• “Inspect” feature added

Visual Improvements

• Fixed several lights that did not cast global illumination
• Fixed missing volumetric lights on traffic lights
• Illuminated signs now cast actual light
• Improved atmospheric haze in several time and weather combinations
• Improved night time lighting and contrast
• Adjusted exaggerated rim light shader on characters
• Improved car window reflections
• Improved Screen Space Ambient Occlusion (SSAO) to be more pronounced

Mega Map and Open World Updates

• New “Mission Overview” has been added to the Mega Map
• Contaminated zones will now display the required filter level on the Mega Map
• Field data with audio will automatically play when you pick them up
• If you start listening to field data with audio from the menu, you can keep listening outside the menu
• Subtitles added for all Field Data that play audio
• Mission entrance menu usability has been improved
• Significantly increased the number of crafting materials obtained from loot crates
• The icon for landmarks in the Dark Zone has been changed and now indicates if non-player enemies are present or not

Gameplay Improvements

• New “Help” menu is now available in the Settings menu. It stores all the loading screen and context sensitive tips
• New tutorials added for certain gameplay features and mechanics (these can be switched off in the Options menu)
• Added information to the in-game loot pickup UI that displays why an item can’t be picked up
• The deployable turret no longer targets non-rogue players and doesn’t damage neutral players caught in the line of fire
• Skill modifiers have been added directly to gear (previously only available on gear mods)

Fixes and General Improvements

• Fixed glitches that could be exploited by players to gain an unfair advantage in the game (such as invisibility, shooting through walls, etc).
• Extended server-side checks to detect any illegal actions from the game client, limit their impact in the game and track down the perpetrators.
• Fixed an issue on character select screen that resulted in getting stuck with a specific combination of inputs
• Fixed a progression blocking issue caused by accepting a group invite at a specific moment during the Base of Operations unlock sequence
• Players will no longer return all the way back to start screen after creating or logging in to their Ubisoft Club account
• Fixed remaining bugs that prevented log-in attempts when non-essential services were offline
• Overall stability increased
• Further backend improvements and optimizations
• Localization adjustments and bug fixes
• Additional minor bug fixes and polish

See you on launch day!

Source: The Division