Mortal Kombat 1 is launching this week and players wanting to train earlier might be able to use the New Zealand trick to accomplish this.
The soft reboot of the fighting franchise is launching on September 14 through the Premium Edition. Nevertheless, the New Zealand trick could allow players to play the game earlier than that.
Does the New Zealand Trick Apply to Mortal Kombat 1?
The New Zealand trick will not work for the Mortal Kombat 1 Early Access Release. This is due to the game launching at the same time across the globe. If you want to check out the specific time in your region, you can do so here.
However, the trick will apply to the base version of the game as it releases at midnight on September 19. This means Mortal Kombat 1 will unlock in New Zealand earlier.
What is the New Zealand Trick?
The New Zealand Trick is a workaround that has been present in game releases worldwide for many years and allows people to play games sooner. Since New Zealand can sometimes have games launch almost a whole day earlier than those in North America (due to time zone differences), they can access the game before other places.
In order for the trick to apply, players must change their platform’s time to align with that of the timezone for New Zealand, tricking the console into thinking it’s in that timezone and unlocking the game earlier, even though the player is elsewhere in the world.
It works for both Xbox and Steam, but the situation is different for PlayStation owners. As the accounts are region-specified, PlayStation players would be required to create a New Zealand account and purchase it on that region’s store in order to play it earlier, making things more complicated.
Mortal Kombat 1 is releasing on PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store. If you want to read more guides on the game, you can check out our MK1 Game Hub here.