You’re staring at the countdown timer on your dashboard. It says twelve hours. Twelve hours of waiting while somewhere across the ocean, a guy in Auckland is already halfway through the first act of the game you’ve been hyping up for months. It feels unfair. Naturally, you think about the "New Zealand trick." You’ve heard about it for years. Xbox players do it with two clicks and a restart.
But if you’re on a PlayStation 5, things are... well, they’re messy.
The new zealand time zone ps5 workaround is a bit of a myth and a bit of a reality, depending on how much effort you’re willing to burn for a few hours of early access. Honestly, most of what you read online is either outdated or flat-out wrong. You can't just hop into your system settings, flip a switch, and expect the PlayStation Store to hand over the goods. Sony isn't Microsoft. They don't play that way.
Why the Simple Time Zone Change Fails
On an Xbox, your console is basically a shapeshifter. You change the region, the store changes with it. On a PS5? Your account is legally and digitally tethered to the region where you first created it.
I’ve seen so many people go to Settings > System > Date and Time and manually set their zone to UTC+13:00 (Wellington). They restart the console, see the clock move forward, and... nothing happens. The game is still locked. Why? Because your digital license for that game is tied to your PSN ID, and your PSN ID is tied to the US, UK, or wherever you actually live.
Sony checks your "Home" store, not your system clock. If you bought Monster Hunter Wilds or the latest Call of Duty on a US account, that license only activates when the clock hits midnight in the US. No amount of clock-fiddling changes that reality. It’s frustrating, but it's how Sony manages regional pricing and licensing laws.
The Only Real Way to Make It Work
If you’re dead set on playing early, you basically have to commit to a bit of a digital heist. You can't convert your current account. You have to create a brand new one.
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- Create a New User: Go to the login screen and add a new user.
- Set Region to New Zealand: When it asks for your country, you pick New Zealand. You’ll need a real NZ postal code—just find a hotel in Wellington on Google Maps.
- The Financial Hurdle: This is where most people quit. You can’t use your US credit card or PayPal on an NZ account. Sony’s fraud detection will kill the transaction instantly. You have to go to a site like PlayAsia or Seagm and buy New Zealand PSN gift cards.
- Buy the Game Again: You have to purchase the game on this new account.
Is it worth it? Probably not for most people. You’re paying for the game in a different currency, usually at a higher price point, and your DLC and save files might be a nightmare to manage later. But, if you do this, you can set that NZ account as the "Primary" on your console (Console Sharing and Offline Play) and then play the game on your main account once it unlocks in New Zealand.
The Activision Exception (The CoD Loophole)
There is one weird outlier that people talk about every year around November. It’s the Call of Duty loophole.
Because Activision handles their own account system within the game (your Activision ID), some players have found success by changing their address to New Zealand on the Activision website rather than just the console settings. I’ve seen reports from Black Ops 7 players in 2025 claiming this worked for them because the game’s servers check the publisher's account region rather than the PSN region for the initial "go-ahead."
It’s inconsistent. Sometimes it works; sometimes it leads to a "Server Queue" screen of death because the PSN license hasn't technically kicked in yet. Use that one at your own risk.
The Global Launch vs. Regional Rollout
Before you go through any of this hassle, check if the game is a Global Launch.
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Publishers are getting smarter. Many big titles now launch at the exact same moment across the entire planet. If a game launches at 12:00 AM EST, that means it’s launching at 6:00 PM in New Zealand. In that specific case, the New Zealand trick does absolutely nothing. No one is ahead of you.
You only want to try this if the game is a "Local Midnight" release. That’s when the staggered rollout happens, and New Zealand gets that sweet 18-hour head start on the Western world.
Actionable Steps for Your Next Big Launch
Stop wasting time in the system clock settings. It won't work. If you truly want to use the new zealand time zone ps5 advantage, follow this checklist:
- Verify the release type: Search the game's official Twitter or website to see if it’s a "Global" or "Regional" launch.
- Check the price: NZ games are often more expensive due to exchange rates and taxes. Calculate the "early access tax" you're paying.
- Prep the account early: Don't try to make an NZ account ten minutes before launch. Sony’s servers sometimes flag rapid-fire account creation and gift card redemption as suspicious.
- Ignore the VPN talk: You don’t need a VPN for the PS5 console itself to make this work, though it can help if you're trying to hide your IP from the web store while buying the gift cards.
Honestly? For most of us, just going to bed early and waking up at midnight is the better play. But if you’ve got the extra cash and a burning need to be first, the "New Account" method is your only bridge to the future.