How to play EA FC 25 early by changing to New Zealand region?

If you are waiting eagerly for EA FC 25 to go live on early access, there’s a great way to enjoy all the content even earlier.

Early access goes live globally on September 20, and it begins at midnight local time for all console users. On PC, the early access begins at 5 a.m. BST worldwide, so the start time will vary based on your region. Since the game launch depends on regional timings on consoles, there’s a popular way to start playing earlier if you’re on Xbox.

Disclaimer: This method only works on Xbox consoles. Readers are advised to try it at their own risk.

EA FC 25 switching region to New Zealand guide

The method mentioned here isn’t actually locked to New Zealand, and you can switch the region to any nation where Xbox is available. But switching to New Zealand makes more sense since it witnesses midnight before any other country. Hence, it’s going to be the first nation in the world to hit midnight, which activates EA FC 25‘s early access. Here’s how you can try out the process.

• Switch on your Xbox console and head to settings.
• Go to System.
• Go to Language & Location.
• Choose New Zealand as your location.
• This will automatically switch the language (region) to New Zealand as well.
• Choose English (Australia) as your language.
• Restart your console.

That’s the entire process, which has been an old favorite of many FC players over the last few years. If you have pre-loaded your game and it’s past midnight in New Zealand, you should be able to play (unless Xbox changes the way the system works completely this year).

As extra advice, close the game before it hits midnight in your region and change the location to your own country. Once it’s past midnight at your place, you can resume playing EA FC 25. Once again, the method is based on how it worked for previous FC games and other titles like Madden 25, College Football 25, etc. You can’t take advantage of this if you’re either on PC or PlayStation.