Starfield New Zealand trick – does it work?

If you’re wondering up if you can play Starfield early with the New Zealand trick, as the game launches in a few hours, we’re going to get to the bottom of this.

Bethesda’s newest RPG introduces a whole new IP to their repertoire for the first time in nearly 25 years. Fans of the studio have been ushered in through successful titles such as Skyrim and Fallout, with excitement for the game’s launch and the recent early access period encouraging pre orders of the game.

It’s already looking on course to be one of the biggest launches of the year and topping several sales charts in its initial early access weekend. It’s even likely to eclipse Tears of the Kingdom and Baldur’s Gate success too – so naturally players are keen to find out if they can get into the game early with this cheeky little work-around.

Will the New Zealand trick work for Starfield?

Unfortunately, as Starfield has a global release time, you’re not going to be able to make use of the New Zealand trick with Starfield.

Starfield’s launch begins on September 5th in North America, and September 6th in the rest of the world. As a note, that’s not the North Americans getting access to the game early, but it’s just simply time zone differences. Everyone will gain access to the game at the same time, meaning that the countdown to launch is the same for everyone.

• 17:00 PDT Sep 5th
• 18:00 CDT Sep 5th
• 19:00 PET Sep 5th
• 20:00 EDT Sep 5th
• 21:00 BRT Sep 5th
• 01:00 BST Sep 6th
• 02:00 CEST Sep 6th
• 03:00 EEST Sep 6th
• 03:00 EAT Sep 6th
• 04:00 AED Sep 6th
• 05:30 IST Sep 6th
• 06:00 ALMT Sep 6th
• 07:00 ICT Sep 6th
• 08:00 CST Sep 6th
• 09:00 JST Sep 6th
• 10:00 AEST Sep 6th
• 12:00 NZST Sep 6th

Effectively, as there’s not going to be a New Zealand trick to make use of – players are going to have to get comfy and ready their patience.

How to do the New Zealand trick for Starfield

The New Zealand trick seems unlikely to work for Starfield, but irrespective it’s been known to work particularly well on Xbox games throughout the years. If you’re still willing to give it a go: here’s exactly how you can do it.

• Open Settings
• Head to the System tab
• Locate Language and Location
• Change location to New Zealand
• Restart your console

What is the New Zealand trick?

The New Zealand trick is relatively innocent workaround allowing gamers to take advantage of time zone differences. For many, New Zealand is on the other side of the world and is hours ahead of all other time zones. This means that if a game is scheduled for a midnight release in all regions, you might be able to change your PC or Xbox Series X / S’s time zone to that of Aotearoa’s. If you do this, you might be able to get into the game earlier than your proscribed release time.

What time is Starfield releasing in New Zealand?

The Starfield launch time will fall on September 6th at 12PM NZST.

Todd Howard actually dropped a cheeky hint in his Bethesda memo towards the New Zealand trick “since you can actually play Thursday evening (Thanks New Zealand!).” To tell the truth, we were a little stumped here at VideoGamer as to what this really means. Starfield will be in the hands of New Zealand gamers on Friday 1st, at the very earliest, so mention of Thursday seems out of place – right? You might have thought that New Zealand trick was going to work with the game based on this information, but actually Howard is thanking New Zealand for having a time zone far ahead of others. This has meant that to make a global launch time that ensures everyone can be playing by Friday morning, other regions have had to have their releases on a Thursday. So, in short, Thanks New Zealand.

As the game is experiencing a global release time, this means that the game is going to be available for everyone at the same time, including those in New Zealand. This has effectively rendered the New Zealand trick redundant for Starfield.

Can you play Starfield early?

The only real way to play Starfield early is by pre-ordering the Constellation Edition or upgrading to the Starfield Premium edition, both of which give Starfield early access.