EA FC 25’s early access release is this weekend but for some gamers, a week’s headstart is not long enough to start their Ultimate Teams.
The latest edition of the best-selling franchise, formerly known as FIFA, has had a unique loophole available on console for years.
FC25 begins its early access for fans who bought the Ultimate Edition on Friday, September 20 – a full week before the worldwide release.
However, there’s a trick that avid gamers have used to play it even earlier, with EA Sports’ rebrand from FIFA not affecting the method.
The scheme, dubbed by the FC community as the New Zealand trick, works by simply changing their console settings.
EA FC 25 New Zealand trick explained
Early access to the game is unlocked at 12am local time worldwide on Friday, September 20, from the second the clock has struck midnight.
Different time zones mean that users will be logging separately rather than crash the servers all at once.
Crucially, New Zealand Standard Time (NZST) is 11 hours ahead of British Summer Time (BST).
This means that from 1pm in London on Thursday, September 19, gamers across the world in Wellington can start playing FC25.
As fans have longed since worked out though, on Xbox Series X|S or Xbox One consoles, country and regions can be changed at will.
Under the Language and Location tab in settings, a switch to New Zealand will lift the region lock imposed on FC25.
Unfortunately, this hack is specific to Xbox users – if you’re on PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch, or PC, it won’t work!
How to do it
Go to Settings on your Xbox console
Go to the System tab
Select the Language & Location option
Change location to New Zealand
Restart your Xbox console
Start up your EA FC 25 and it should be ready to go
Change the location back to UK before 11.30pm BST to avoid being region-locked for matchmaking
Is there any way to copy on PlayStation?
Yes, but it’s much more complicated and may not be worth the time and potentially money for just a few extra hours.
Should PlayStation fans wish to create a new PS account with a different email address they can select New Zealand as their country.
Purchase EAFC 25 using this new account and then turn on console sharing to access the game on your main account.
The obvious drawback to this is that the final step is only available once the release time has lapsed in your respective time zone.
Setting up a new account will mean forfeiting any transferrable rewards and starting from scratch with an empty club.
It might also geo-lock your location to New Zealand, which would present matchmaking issues if you’re on incompatible time zones.
But it at least remains an option for PS5 users – unlike those on PC, who instead have to wait without an avenue to explore.
