Must just be because it is pre-release? Incomplete... or maybe just the DRM thing. But I can't see a reason for them not using the old saves. Surely they wouldn't have redesigned that when they didn't bother elsewhere?
The press release does mention saving to the cloud.
Surely they didn't follow the recent trend and remove offline play altogether.
To be fair the save folder doesn't actually show up until you make a save to begin with, even with our current version 
.
At least that is how it works for me.
Yeah, my guess is that it'll create a save folder in the user's documents, as seems to be standard with games these days... Generally, cloud saving means saving to your PC and syncing, rather than ONLY saving to the cloud. This has the following key advantages:
1. You don't lose your progress in case of a connection failure mid-session. SecuROM isn't typically "always-on", so chances are it'll use the connection to verify and sync when you start the game, and sync again when it quits if it can.
2. By storing a local copy, they can compare hashes rather than downloading the entire save file every time. This might seem minor, but with thousands of people playing this'll save a TON of bandwidth.
I can't guarantee this is how they're doing it, but they'd be really, really stupid not to. It's in the user's best interest for playability, and theirs for money.
When does the official release happen anyway, I was told this weekend?
They haven't announced it, but the rumors say the 15th, as that is when the game will be presented at Gamescom, and a number of people have speculated that they will do what Apple does for new products, announcing what's changed/improved and saying "oh btw it's available for download RIGHT NOW" and activating the link. Of course, there's no proof they'll do this, but it's got more evidence than any other speculation I've seen on the matter.
