If you’re impatient, you might know about this trick that lets you access games early because you can’t wait any longer. It’s super popular for games like EA FC 24, Starfield, and more. How early you’re able to play them depends on the timezone you’re in. But if you aren’t already living there, here’s how to do the New Zealand trick and play games early.
How to do the New Zealand Trick and Play Games Early
The New Zealand trick for gaming gives you early access to newly-released games. However, it only works on Xbox and Game Pass on PC.
What the New Zealand Trick Does
Basically, the idea behind the New Zealand trick is setting your location on your console as New Zealand’s time zone. Doing this lets you play games earlier, unless you’re already in New Zealand’s time zone. In that case, nothing changes. However, if you’re in a different area, you can use this hack to play new releases half a day early, depending on your real time zone.
How to do the Trick on Xbox
To do the New Zealand trick on Xbox, all you need to do is:
- Go to your account settings.
- Go to Language and Location.
- Change your region to New Zealand.
- Restart your console for it to take effect.
Using the Trick on PC Game Pass
If you’re using Game Pass on PC, then the process is slightly different:
- Go into your Region Settings.
- Select New Zealand there.
- Restart your PC.
Some players have reported that it doesn’t work as well through PC and can result in clunky gameplay, but this could also be due to other technical issues. However, I decided to include it with the recommendation to try restarting your PC (again), and check your game settings and hardware if that doesn’t help.
But that covers everything you need to know for how to do the New Zealand trick to play games early. It’s hard to wait those final hours to play a game that you’ve had your eye on for months. And in the worst-case scenario, you can change your region back to its original location after you test if the trick works for you.
