Tomorrow, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 celebrates its official release. A day before, the developers now say that a popular trick to play games early will not work.
Update: There is now a variation of the New Zealand trick, which is said to allow early access from now on.
What kind of trick is this? The New Zealand trick is a popular method to play games several hours before the official release in one’s own region.
Players set the region of their platform to “New Zealand” to gain early access to a game due to the time difference. Players used the New Zealand trick in CoD: Cold War.
If, for example, a game releases on October 28 at 00:00, German players who set their region to Wellington, New Zealand can play as early as October 27 at 1:00 PM German time. The trick does not work when a game is released simultaneously worldwide, regardless of the time zone.
Infinity Ward comments on the New Zealand trick
Why will CoD players fail with the trick? As Infinity Ward, the developer studio behind Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, stated on Twitter, the New Zealand trick will not work this year.
The studio revealed that players might experience connection issues and could be excluded from the game until the official launch in their region. However, once the shooter is officially released in the players’ region, access to the game should be possible again.
We embed the tweet from “CoD: Modern Warfare 2” developer Infinity Ward here:
In general, the trick would not have been so easy to implement this year. While the release on PC takes place worldwide at the same time, on PlayStation, you would need to create a New Zealand account and purchase the game on that account.
Thus, the trick would have only been possible on Xbox, but even there, players should refrain from trying after Infinity Ward’s Twitter post.
When can you download MW2? The release of MW2 takes place in stages, where different time zones play a role. The campaign of MW2 is available to digital pre-orderers since October 20. On all platforms, the preload of the full game can already be started.
What do you think of the trick? Do you think it’s good that it doesn’t work for MW2, or would you have liked to play the shooter a few hours earlier? Let us know in the comments on MeinMMO!
Would you like to play some PvE content from Modern Warfare 2 in co-op with friends? MeinMMO editor Maik Schneider will tell you which modes allow that.
CoD Modern Warfare 2 offers many PvE contents – What can be played in co-op?
