Shawn just pointed this out to me:
Source: http://blogs.msdn.com/usisvde/archive/2008/01/29/microsoft-visual-studio-2008-is-now-available.aspx
Microsoft is proud to announce the availability of Visual Studio 2008 in volume licensing, retail, and MSDN download.
This exciting new version was released to manufacturing (RTM) on November 19, 2007 and at that time active MSDN subscribers were able to download it right away. With its inclusion on the January 2008 volume licensing price list, the product is now available to sell and ship to your customers via Open, Select, Enterprise Agreement (EA), and Full Packaged Product (FPP).
flaphead.com 