You’re still on time to ask your boss for a half sick day at work and leave before your shift ends. If you want to play Elden Ring early and happen to have an Xbox console, this guide may be of help. Just bear in mind we can’t sign any permission letters for your job, for legal reasons.
How to Play Elden Ring Early on Xbox Consoles
If you want to play Elden Ring early on Xbox, these are the steps:
- Sign in to your Xbox console.
- Press the Xbox button on your controller to open the guide.
- Head to System – Settings – System – Language & Location.
- Select New Zealand from the Location list, and then select Restart now.
That’s right, we’re taking a trip to New Zealand. At the time of writing is 6:45 a.m. of February 25 over there, which equals to 8:45 a.m. PT/12:45 p.m. ET of the present day on this side of the world. The game is releasing soon, but if you want to get in there early, you absolutely can! For reference, the Elden Ring release time is at 3 p.m. PT/6p.m. ET, so you can get quite a few hours of playtime ahead of it.
Changing your Xbox’s location doesn’t affect your overall profile, so don’t worry about your information or achievements changing. Once Elden Ring is out in your region, you can go ahead and repeat the steps to go back to it. That being said, you may notice a slight difference if you head into the Store, as the prices correspond to New Zealand. Also, you may experience a bit of latency while playing online, but that depends on the game as well.
In my experience, I bought an Xbox Series S during a trip to the United States. I was too excited to wait until I was back in Argentina, so I did a maneuver that I won’t explain in detail here to connect the HDMI cable behind a dusty, spider-web infested TV mounted on the Airbnb wall. Once I managed to do it and after a long minute of washing my hands, I went ahead and set things up.
I put United States as the region at the moment to prevent any connection or set up issues, but I was unaware that changing it later would work. Thankfully, I’ve been able to switch between the US and Argentina with ease. It doesn’t take long to select the option and restart your console, so it’s worth the effort.
Moreover, you can use this method with all upcoming releases. It may not be infallible, but you can repeat these same steps with other games in the future. Just make sure to switch it back once the release happens in your region and you should be all set.
That’s all you need to know to play Elden Ring early. If you’re in need of some help, we have guides on how to get a mount, how to play multiplayer with friends, what the stats mean and how to respect, starting classes, how to invade another player’s world, and 29 lengthy tips.
