Have you ever been so excited to get a game that you want to get it before everyone else. Back in the day I remember going to the midnight release of every Call of Duty game from Black Ops 1 through to Black Ops 3. I would get so excited and be able to play the game a few hours before everyone else (The race to prestige was real).
Well, now games are all in cloud and we have to download them at midnight rather than head to the store (Not as fun in my opinion). So how can you get pre-ordered games on Xbox earlier than anyone else?
How To Get Pre-Ordered Games Early On Xbox
If you live in the UK or America you’re in luck. On Xbox games get released at midnight in your region. This means that in New Zealand they get the game approximately 13 hours earlier than I would in the UK. By using a little trick we can actually unlock the game in the UK at the New Zealand release time.
This means that you can play around 12-13 hours earlier in the UK and 17 to 20 hours in the US. That means getting more game time. Also, if you’re a streamer this gives you a huge advantage as you will have the game earlier than your competitors meaning you pick up all them ‘new game hype videos’.
Just be careful with some games as the may have an embargo meaning you’re not allowed to stream until a certain time and date.
You can see here I was able to get over 9000 views the day that Cyberpunk released by using this strategy.
So how exactly do you get the game early? Let take a look!
Step By Step To Getting Pre-Ordered Games Early
Before getting into the steps below make sure you have pre-ordered the game on the Xbox/Microsoft store.
If you want a video tutorial you can check out the video below:
Step 1 – Go to settings on your Xbox Dashboard
Step 2 – Go down to system –> Language and Location
Step 3 – Go down to location and set this to New Zealand
Now when you go into the game you are going to be playing you should see the release date has moved forward by one day as you are no in New Zealand time zone.
Once the game has released in your time zone you can switch back to that location in your settings and play as normal. If you are playing an online game you may experience some lag as you will mainly be playing with people located in New Zealand/Australia giving you a higher ping.
Will I Get Banned For Playing Xbox Games Early
No, you will not get banned for using this trick to play a game early. This trick has been around for over 5 years now and I have never heard of anyone getting banned for using it. As the game is officially out in New Zealand when doing this trick it is perfectly okay to play the game.
Will I Lose My Game Progress Playing Games Early?
No, when you change your region back to your original location you will still maintain all progress in your game.
Does Xbox Allow You To Play Games Early?
While Xbox does not explicitly state that they allow you to do this, they have never patched the glitch or punished anyone for using it. The glitch has been around for over years with many people using it regularly to play games early.
How Can You Use This To Grow Your Stream?
Obviously, if you can play a highly anticipated game earlier than anyone else this gives you a big advantage to gain new followers and viewership.
If the game does not have an embargo I would recommend multi-streaming on Youtube and Twitch (I have found Youtube to be better than Twitch for this) as soon as the game releases in New Zealand.
As Youtube has great discoverability on search you will get a lot of people searching for the game and finding your stream.
On Twitch you will likely be fairly high in the category for the game as there won’t be many people online streaming.
Tips For Maintaining Viewership After the Day One Release
- Directly ask people to subscribe/follow
- Do stuff in the game that the viewers want to see
- Upload early content from the game to Youtube to gain more viewers
- During the stream talk about what you plan to do in the game over the next week/month etc (This could be a series they may want to come back and see)
- Act yourself and create an enjoyable stream, if people enjoy they will naturally follow and come back
Wrapping Up
Whether you want to just enjoy the game early or you want to get a one up on your streaming career you can use the strategy above. Just make sure you watch out for embargos on games which don’t allow you to stream until a specific date. If that’s not the case enjoy getting more viewers and have fun playing your game early on Xbox.
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