id Software's Todd Hollenshead updated his .plan with word that Quake III Arena did in fact ship today, and that Electronics Boutique and Babbages expect to have it on shelves tomorrow (again, this is only the Windows version). Here's the scoop:

Shelf date update (Windows version only)!

Q3A was shipped today and you should expect Babbages and EB to have it as early as tomorrow (I think they may have paid extra for expedited shipping). Please understand that not all of these stores may actually stock the game on shelves tomorrow and some of them may already be "sold out" due to the huge pre-order response (in fact, Q3A is #1 for these stores before even hitting the shelves). CompUSA, Best Buy, Wal-Mart, etc. are all getting copies as well, but they probably won't show up on shelves before the "official" US date of December 5th.

Just like with Quake II, we won't have any copies for sale from 1-800 idgames before the retailers (retail outlets are our first priority for shipping). I'll let everyone know once we get some here so you can order direct from us.