This month, Starfield can be played thanks to an old trick
Are you prepared? The hype surrounding Bethesda’s massive space exploration RPG Starfield has reached a fever pitch.
If you didn’t know, players who pay a price will get early access to Starfield. The game will be released on the 6th of September but those who purchase the Constellation Edition for around PS250/$300 or the Premium Edition (around PS100/$100), can get started as early as 1st September. You can upgrade to the Premium Edition if you have already purchased the Standard Edition. The same bonus is available for PS34.99/$34.99.
It’s not surprising that many Starfield fans have already pre-ordered a version of the game to get started as quickly as possible. However, it is worth remembering that there are a few simple tricks that can be used to push that date forward even more. Slightly, anyway.
I will introduce the timezone trick to those who are not familiar with it. By claiming to live in New Zealand on Xbox, PC, or Mac, you are able to time-travel several hours. The effect will vary depending on where you are located. If you live in New Zealand it won’t matter.
New Zealand, for my UK-based friends, is 11 hours behind. This means you can (theoretically) dive into Starfield at 1 PM (UK time) on the 31st of August, as this would be equivalent to midnight on New Zealand’s 1 September.
Bethesda previously clarified, “Actual playtime depends on the purchase date. It is also subject to outages or time zone variations”. We can therefore assume the New Zealand trick should work. However, it will be clearer closer to release.
