Yes, primarily to avoid damaging equipment at work

Uh huh.

You mean ppl get what they paid for, this is shocking zenimax !

Good news for those that purchased the imperial edition in digital form. They get their bonuses during early access. I think that is right anyways. But, what about the people who pre-ordered a retail copy? They have to wait to have access to those same items? Doesn't affect me, but I know some people who are thinking of changing their pre-order due to this.

Only the mudcrap pet would be missing from the imperial edition. All the other items should be available to them, though they need to put in their key at launchdate to retain them.

With the exception of the create any race in any alliance the explorer pack goodies must wait until launch.

When do I receive the full benefits of the Explorer’s Pack?

The full range of in-game benefits from the Explorer’s Pack will be unlocked on April 4th. From the start of Early Access, players who pre-ordered or pre-purchased any edition of The Elder Scrolls Online will be able to take advantage of the ability to play as any race in any alliance. To enable this, pre-order customers and customers who pre-purchased from a 3rd party online retailer must first redeem their 3-day or 5-day Early Access code at our official site before the start of the Early Access period.
If you have pre-purchased any edition of The Elder Scrolls Online from the ESO Digital Store, you do NOT need to take any further action.

If I pre-ordered or pre-purchased the Imperial Edition, will I be able to play as an Imperial during Early Access?

During the Early Access period, Imperial Edition customers who have entered their 5 Day Early Access code at https://account.elderscrollsonline.com/login will have access to the following:

• Play as an Imperial and craft Imperial gear
• Transform any gear to look like Imperial gear
• Imperial Horse
• Rings of Mara

Customers who pre-purchased the Imperial Edition from our ESO store have no further action required, as the above items will unlock automatically for you at the start of Early Access.
From April 4th, customers who pre-ordered the physical Imperial Edition must enter their Imperial Pack code in the box in order to retain these items and to fully unlock the full Imperial Pack contents.

Naysayer, hex hex hex you shall all perish hex tisk gruesome & horrible to teh lot of ya hex hex hex tisk tisk dooms days is finally here, repent before its too late....

Oh wait, it's better? Nevermind.

Also, I don't recall in the original 'statement' any clarification on what would be available when. So are we purposely trying to troll & flame? Hmmmm, the eight ball points to YES.

That's the reason why I bought the digital edition. Every retailer I went to seemed inconsistent with the pre-order bonuses. I could understand the 3 day early access that some were listing (games come out on Tuesdays in the States), but with 5 days, I would be relying on them to provide a valid code - which some purchasers seemed to have received while others claimed they didn't.