It doesn't come out until the end of March, so I doubt it ships by the end of February (also known as today).
More on the functions of the HDD. I've been reading a game about developing video games and it said that in future games, they may be able to save stuff you've done on it, not like game saves that are put on the memory card, but the example they gave was if you dig a hole in a spot, the HDD could remember that hole and there would always be a hole there. I'm pretty sure that's what it said, I should go find that part again.
btw, I'm getting this for free too, even though I wasn't a beta tester, and I already have the NA, so all I've got to pay is $12 per month and $1 for my character. Do we get the first month for free on this game? What about the first character?