So I understand you can pre-load the game... and supposedly it gets released at "midnight".

But what timezone would that be? Does it become available at midnight in a specific timezone or in each timezone?

I don't think that the pre-loading has been officially announced. Mafia II, which also had Steam DRM for the retail version, did not have pre-loading.

With Mafia II, I'm pretty sure that it was unlocked around 9PM here in the West Coast, which translates to midnight on the East Coast.

I really hope that they have preloading for this game. And if they don't, I hope it is a midnight release so I can get it downloading overnight.

I want preloading because the app will probably be barred from running until the 19th, but the BSA archives probably won't be locked. I wanna peruse through them beforehand to see all the goods!