Black Ops 6 New Zealand trick – how you could play the latest Call of Duty game early

It’s almost time for a new era of Call of Duty to begin, and it’s feeling a little different this time around.

Now that is under the watch of and Gaming, it marks a brand new era for the mega franchise, making the upcoming the very first game to launch on day one on . We’re nearing the title's now, and as preload options and more launch details for the , campaign and multiplayer become available, it’s starting to feel like we’re already in the thick of it.

We won’t be until the game is in our hands though, and the Black Ops 6 launch plan means there's a chance players can actually play it a little early using the renowned New Zealand trick to get around the game’s launch times although, for reasons we'll explain in great detail, there's no guarantee it'll work this year. Here’s what you need to know to perform the Black Ops 6 New Zealand trick and to potentially play the game early.

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Black Ops 6 New Zealand trick – how you could play early

The Black Ops 6 New Zealand trick does not necessarily guarantee you'll be able to play the game early this year, and that's because Activision has confirmed that Black Ops 6 will roll out regionally on Xbox and PlayStation consoles between 4am PDT and 11pm on Thursday, October 24, which translate to the following times in various regions:

• UK: 12pm BST on Thursday, October 24 – 7am BST on Friday, October 25
• US East Coast: 7am EDT on Thursday, October 24 – 2am on Friday, October 25
• US West Coast: 4am PDT – 11pm on Thursday, October 24
• New Zealand: 12am NZDT – 7pm on Friday, October 25

It's impossible to know whether the Black Ops 6 New Zealand trick will allow you to get early access, as we don't yet have confirmation about which regions will get access to Black Ops 6 first. However, if New Zealand does happen to be the very first region to get access in a timezone-influenced rollout, and you successfully set up the New Zealand trick prior to the game launching, you could be able to jump in from 12am BST on Friday, October 25, as that's the earliest possible time the game will go live in New Zealand.

However, if the US West Coast is the first region to roll out, beginning at 4am PDT, players in the UK who haven't done the New Zealand trick will be able to play from 12pm BST on Thursday, October 24, which therefore makes the New Zealand trick completely redundant.

In short, as Activision hasn't confirmed the regional rollout order, there's no guarantee that doing the New Zealand trick will grant earlier access than the region you are in, so proceed at your own risk! If you want to give it a go anyway, we've broken down the steps to try it down below.

Black Ops 6 New Zealand trick – Xbox

Here's how to change your Xbox console's region to New Zealand, in order to perform the Black Ops 6 New Zealand trick:

Go to the Settings menu on your Xbox console

Go to the System tab

Select the Language & Location option

Change location to New Zealand

Restart your Xbox console

Head over to the Call of Duty website and log in to your account

Go to Basic Info and then Address

Change country to New Zealand

Black Ops 6 New Zealand trick – PlayStation and Xbox Game Pass on PC

Although we haven't tried this method ourselves, there are numerous posts over on Twitter (including a post from @CharlieIntel that we've linked below), which claim changing the region associated with your Call of Duty account can enable you to perform the Black Ops 6 New Zealand trick on PlayStation and PC (only via Xbox Game Pass).

Again, we haven't tried or verified this ourselves, so your mileage may vary, but here are the suggested steps:

• Don't change any settings on your PlayStation console
• Head over to the Call of Duty website and log in to your account
• Go to Basic Info and then Address
• Change country to New Zealand

If you've got Black Ops 6 on or Battle.net, it's not possible to change your region, however, it remains to be seen if the Black Ops 6 New Zealand trick will even work, but that's all the info you need if you want to try it for yourself!