Players who have pre-ordered the FIFA 23 Ultimate Edition can play the full game before the official UK release via the popular New Zealand glitch.
Whilst FIFA 23 has an official UK and worldwide release date of Friday, September 30, 2022, players who have pre-ordered the Ultimate Edition of the game will get three days of early access, and will be able to play the full game from Tuesday, September 27, 2022. But, there's a glitch that allows an extra day of early access.
Players who pre-ordered the FIFA 23 Ultimate Edition will be able to access FIFA 23 from Monday, September 26, 2022 with the popular New Zealand glitch, a trick that has been used across past FIFA titles to get the game a day early.
To get your day early access, players will need to change the location of their console to a country with a different time zone (New Zealand). This way, your console will think the date is already September 27, 2022, allowing you to unlock the full version of FIFA 23. Unfortunately, this glitch only works on Xbox One and Xbox Series S/X due to players being able to change their location whenever they want. Unlucky PlayStation and PC players!
Here are the full instructions to access FIFA 23 early using the New Zealand glitch on Xbox.
FIFA 23 New Zealand glitch instructions
- Go to the Settings menu on Xbox
- Go to the System tab
- Select the Language & Location option
- Change location to New Zealand
- Restart your Xbox console
- Launch the FIFA 23 Ultimate Edition from your game library
If you follow these steps, you should be able to play FIFA 23 from around 12:00 PM BST on Monday, September 26, 2022, a day earlier than usual. But, make sure to change your console location back to your actual location before 23:30 PM BST on Monday, September 26, otherwise, you may become region locked when searching for matches in-game.
You cannot change your location when playing the game, so make sure you're not in the middle of an online match during this time. Quit the game, go back into the menu using the instructions listed above and change your location back to your actual location.
There are other ways that players can access FIFA 23 early, but the available features are limited. Players can now access FIFA 23 Ultimate Team through the Web App and Companion app, allowing players to access the FUT transfer market, buy packs, complete SBCs, manage their FUT squad and more.
FIFA 23 will be released on Friday, September 30, 2022 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC, Stadia, PS4, and Xbox One. Players who pre-order the Ultimate Edition of FIFA 23 or are subscribed to EA Play will be given early access to the game, allowing players access to the game on Tuesday, September 27, 2022.
FIFA 23 is developed by EA Vancouver and EA Romania and will be available worldwide on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, Stadia, PS4, and Xbox One on September 30. Early access for FIFA 23 Ultimate Edition begins on September 27, 2022.
