Cyberpunk 2077 is officially upon us, unlocking at midnight local time on December 10 for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. Despite the imminent release, though, some Xbox players are manipulating their consoles to play the game early.
According to Video Games Chronicle reporter Andy Robinson, Xbox owners who switch their console’s region to New Zealand can unlock Cyberpunk 2077 hours before the game actually comes out. This is because New Zealand is more than 10 hours ahead of most regions.
Developer CD Projekt Red already announced the release times for Cyberpunk 2077 and let users preload the game early, so knowing that the game can be unlocked by manipulating the console is unsurprising. A handful of users from both Reddit and Twitter have reported the trick to work on Xbox consoles. But the same sort of trick can’t be performed on PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5; the location data on Sony’s consoles is predetermined by the user’s account.
Cyberpunk 2077 has caught a lot of heat since its initial unveiling a few years, most recently for the lack of epileptic seizure warnings. The studio said a separate warning label will be added as soon as possible while pointing to the one that currently exists in the game’s EULA.
Reviews of Cyberpunk 2077 are live and the consensus is largely positive, with a few outliers here and there. We scored the game a 7/10 in our Cyberpunk 2077 review, saying, “The side quests and the characters they showcase are the shining beacon through the neon-soaked bleakness of Night City, and they give you room to explore the best the core RPG mechanics have to offer. These are what carried me through an otherwise disappointing experience.
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