The EA Sports FC 24 football season is about to kick off with the early access Ultimate edition. And, if you’re particularly desperate for the ref to begin the game, you can get early access one day earlier by using the New Zealand release date and time trick on Xbox.
EA Sports FC 24 is the beginning of a new footballing dynasty under the direction of Electronic Arts. If you’re not fully convinced about buying this year’s installment, you can enjoy the EA Play 10-hour trial on both PlayStation and Xbox. But, if you’ve already signed the contract with the devil and pre-ordered the Ultimate edition, you can use the New Zealand release date and time trick to get eight days early access instead of seven.
EA Sports FC 24 New Zealand release time
The release date and time for EA Sports FC 24 early access in New Zealand is 00:00 NZST on September 22nd.
This comes courtesy of the Microsoft store. According to Microsoft, the game has a local midnight launch in most regions instead of a simultaneous worldwide release.
This means the New Zealand trick should work similarly to NBA 2K24 earlier this month. Electronic Arts hasn’t confirmed any release times for the beautiful game, but Microsoft’s reported launch hours are corroborated by the PSN store.
If you pull off the NZ trick, you will be able to start playing football one day earlier on Xbox than on PlayStation and PC.
How to do EA Sports FC 24 early access New Zealand release time trick
The EA Sports FC 24 New Zealand early access release time trick will work from 05:00 PDT, 08:00 EST, and 13:00 BST on September 21st.
Before messing about with your settings, the most important aspect is pre-ordering the right edition. It’s fundamental you pre-order the Ultimate edition to get early access otherwise you will have to wait until September 28th/29th.
Provided you’ve pre-ordered the Ultimate edition, simply follow the below steps once the aforementioned hours pass:
- Select Settings
- Click System
- Proceed to Language and Location
- Change Location to New Zealand
- Reset Xbox console
In addition to the Ultimate edition, the Web App is also available from September 20th. This is an official online application from EA that lets you build your Ultimate Team. The corresponding Companion App is available to download on iOS and Android from September 21st.
Ultimate edition bonuses
Below are the price and bonuses for the Ultimate edition (via the PSN store):
Ultimate edition – £99.99:
- EA Sports FC 24 PS4 and PS5, Xbox One and Series X/S
- Up to 7 Days of Early Access
- 4600 FC Points
- Nike Ultimate Team™ Campaign
- Nike Ultimate Team™ Loan & Kit
- TOTW 1 Ultimate Team™ Player
- All Standard Edition incentives
If you have an EA Play Pro membership on PC, you can get the Ultimate Edition entirely for free. Meanwhile, on PlayStation and Xbox, an EA Play subscription lets you demo a 10-hour trial.
This year’s version of the beautiful game is massive. There are new features for Pro Clubs such as crossplay, and Ultimate Team has new features too such as the inclusion of legends from the women’s game.