It happens every single year. You're sitting there, staring at a countdown timer that feels like it’s moving in slow motion, while some guy on Twitter is already posting screenshots of his Diamond camo grind. It's annoying. But if you’ve been around the Call of Duty community for a while, you know the drill. We're talking about the New Zealand Black Ops 6 region switch.
It’s basically a rite of passage for Xbox and PC players at this point.
The logic is pretty simple: New Zealand is ahead of almost everyone else in terms of time zones. When the clock strikes midnight in Auckland, the game goes live there. Meanwhile, if you’re in New York or London, you’re still stuck in the previous day, waiting for the global rollout or your local midnight. By "moving" your console to New Zealand, you can theoretically jump into the campaign or multiplayer hours before your neighbors even finish downloading the day-one patch.
Why the New Zealand Black Ops 6 Method Actually Works
Microsoft handles regional releases differently than Sony. On PlayStation, your region is tied to the store where you bought the game. If you bought it on the US PSN store, you are locked to the US release time. Period. Xbox is way more chill about it. You can literally just toggle a setting in your system menu, restart the console, and suddenly your Xbox thinks it’s grabbing a flat white in Wellington.
Is it "cheating"? Not really. Activision and Microsoft have known about this for a decade. They don't ban people for it. They just let the kiwis—and the thousands of "honorary" kiwis—flood the servers early.
However, things are a bit more complicated this year because of how the Call of Duty HQ app (that massive file we all love to hate) manages licenses. New Zealand Black Ops 6 access depends entirely on whether the game is a "rolling launch" or a "global simultaneous launch." For the last few titles, including Modern Warfare III, it was a rolling launch for consoles. This meant the New Zealand trick worked like a charm.
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Setting Your Xbox to New Zealand Time
If you’re on Xbox, this is a three-minute job. Honestly, the hardest part is waiting for the console to reboot.
First, you’ll want to head into your Settings. From there, go to System, then Language & Location. You’ll see a dropdown for "Location." Switch that to New Zealand. Don't worry about the language or the time zone settings specifically; the Location setting is what triggers the store's release window.
Hit "Restart Now."
When the console boots back up, your Xbox Store will reflect New Zealand times. If the game is live there, you should be able to launch it. Just a heads-up: sometimes you’ll need to go to the Activision website and update your address in your Call of Duty profile to a random New Zealand postal code too. People usually use a hotel address in Auckland. It sounds extra, but sometimes the game checks your Activision account region rather than just the hardware region.
What About PC and PlayStation?
This is where the dream usually dies for a lot of people.
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PlayStation users are mostly out of luck. Unless you specifically created a New Zealand PSN account months ago and bought the game using NZD currency (which is a massive pain because of regional payment methods), you aren't getting in early. Your digital license is hardcoded to the region of the store you purchased from. Changing your system clock does absolutely nothing.
PC is a mixed bag.
If you're on Battle.net or Steam, Activision usually enforces a global simultaneous launch. This means the game unlocks at the exact same moment for everyone worldwide (for example, 9 PM PT / 12 AM ET). In that scenario, the New Zealand Black Ops 6 trick is useless because New Zealand is waiting for the same global timestamp as you are.
But! If you are playing the PC version through the Xbox App (PC Game Pass), you might have a shot. Since that version uses the Microsoft Store infrastructure, changing your Windows Region settings to New Zealand sometimes tricks the app into letting you hit that "Play" button early. It worked for several high-profile releases in 2024 and 2025, so it's worth a shot.
The Downside Nobody Mentions
Everyone talks about getting in early, but nobody talks about the lag.
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When you use the New Zealand Black Ops 6 method for multiplayer, you are often being placed into matches on regional servers. If you’re physically in Ohio but your account says you’re in Christchurch, the matchmaking system might get confused. You could end up with a 300ms ping because the game is trying to find other "local" players for you.
It's usually fine for the Campaign. If you just want to see the story and avoid spoilers on Reddit, the New Zealand trick is perfect. But if you're trying to sweat in multiplayer, be prepared for some rubber-banding until the game officially launches in your home region and you switch back.
Also, don't forget to switch back.
If you leave your console set to New Zealand, you might run into issues buying CoD Points or DLC later because the currency won't match your credit card’s billing address. Once the game is officially out in your actual location, go back into your settings and move yourself home.
Step-by-Step Action Plan for Launch Day
To make sure you don't mess this up, follow this specific order of operations.
- Pre-load the game completely. Do not try to do the region switch while the game is still downloading. It can occasionally corrupt the license file and force a redownload, which is a nightmare.
- Check the official Call of Duty Twitter (X) account. Look for the "Launch Map." If they show a staggered release (different times for different countries), the New Zealand trick will work. If they show one single time for the whole world, stay in bed.
- Change your Xbox/Windows Location. Do this about an hour before the New Zealand midnight launch.
- Update your Activision ID Profile. Go to the Call of Duty website, log in, and change your "Home Address" to New Zealand.
- Launch the game. If it works, great. If you get a "too early" message, hard reset the console.
Staying on top of these regional quirks is basically part of the Call of Duty experience now. Just remember that at the end of the day, you're only gaining about 12 to 18 hours of playtime. It’s a nice head start for the camo grind, but it’s not worth stressing over if the servers are shaky on day one anyway. Focus on getting that pre-load done early so you aren't staring at a progress bar while the rest of the world is already prestige-ing.