How to play The Blood of Dawnwalker early (New Zealand Trick)
The Blood of Dawnwalker launches worldwide today, but console players can exploit a regional release quirk to start playing several hours early at no extra cost. By manually setting a console's region to New Zealand, which follows the same launch schedule but reaches midnight before most other regions, players can trigger the game's early availability window.
The trick is easier to carry out on Xbox than on PlayStation, and it applies only to consoles, since the PC release runs on a separate schedule. On PlayStation, the process is more cumbersome and would require repurchasing the game on a second account, meaning anyone who already owns it on their main account gains little from bothering with the workaround; most players are advised simply to wait for the standard launch time.
- New Zealand region trick unlocks early access to The Blood of Dawnwalker
- Works easily on Xbox; far more cumbersome on PlayStation
- PC release follows a separate schedule and isn't affected
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The Blood of Dawnwalker is a video game set for release today across PC and consoles. Its global launch is staggered by time zone, meaning the game becomes playable in some parts of the world before others, based on when each region's midnight arrives.
Because New Zealand is one of the first places on Earth to reach midnight, players who change their console's region settings to New Zealand can trick the system into unlocking the game several hours ahead of their actual local launch time, without paying anything extra. This kind of regional time-zone workaround is a well-known quirk of digital game releases and has been used for other titles in the past.
The method works differently depending on the console: it's straightforward on Xbox, but on PlayStation it involves extra steps, including potentially buying the game again on a separate account, which limits its usefulness for most players. It does not apply to the PC version, which follows its own separate release schedule.