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Will the New Zealand trick work for Starfield?

Updated: Aug 30, 2023 2:32 pm
Will the New Zealand trick work for Starfield?

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The New Zealand trick is a method used for every game and Starfield will be no exception. Essentially, because New Zealand is ahead in time zone, players tend to purchase games in the country’s websites so they can play early.

This doesn’t always work, however, as global releases have made most games release at the same time. Normally, this works as New York’s Eastern Time (ET) being the standard midnight while the rest of the world uses their time equivalents.

If you’re interested in playing Starfield early, make sure to get early access to the game and preload it if you can’t. If you still haven’t preordered the game, make sure to as well, either way, below we’ll answer whether or not this is a case where the New Zealand trick can work.

Can I use the New Zealand trick to get Starfield early?

No, the New Zealand trick will not work for Starfield. The game is being released by a major developer and publisher, Bethesda Softworks and ZeniMax Media. Bethesda games have always been able to be released at the same time around the world to let everyone have a chance to play Starfield at the same time. So your New Zealand account

Even more so, since Microsoft bought Bethesda’s parent company, there’s really no question whether Microsoft would do everything in its power to make sure the launch is as smooth as possible.

The New Zealand trick only works for smaller releases and games that follow the local release time frame. In other words, games in that time frame will be released at midnight based on the timezone of wherever they are. In these cases, you can just use the New Zealand trick to play a game early because New Zealand would have unlocked the game before other countries.

In this case, because the time zone doesn’t matter and everyone will have the game unlocked at the same time, no the New Zealand trick will not work for you. Unfortunately, that kind of thing is dying thanks to global releases becoming the standard. The time zone differences won’t matter during a global release time.

So regardless of whether you have an Xbox or PC, you’ll have to wait until late August or early September to play Starfield. Of course, the month is determined by whether you have Starfield early access on your PC or Xbox Series X|S console. Those of you on PlayStation will not be able to play at all, regardless of the early access period or what side of the world you are on.


Jorge Aguilar is the Gaming Editor for WePC. He is interested in the video game industry and its history.

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