Yep, this is a rather lousy way to treat what sounds like several regions. I guess Sony is to blame here, but I'm certainly hoping that someone is giving them a kick in the ...
Assuming the pre-load becomes available at some point during today (Monday) I should be able to play at midnight - not that the PSN download servers aren't known to fluctuate significantly in speed - but it's looking like many other people may not be so lucky.