When the clock strikes midnight in Auckland on November 19, gaming history will record an odd little footnote. As most of the world sleeps or sits at a desk, a nation of just over 5 million people will be firing up Grand Theft Auto 6 ahead of everyone else.
The reason is Rockstar’s decision to release GTA 6 at midnight local time in every region instead of throwing a single worldwide switch. New Zealand hits November 19 first, which means New Zealanders are first to play. It really is that straightforward.
You won’t need to relocate to Wellington to join them, either. There is a catch, however, and it comes down to which console happens to be sitting under your TV.
How Xbox owners can play a whole day early
Xbox players can switch their console’s region to New Zealand, which should unlock GTA 6 the moment midnight arrives in New Zealand time. In real terms, that amounts to a full day’s head start.
Work out the time zones and it looks like this: 12:00am on Thursday, November 19 in New Zealand corresponds to Wednesday, November 18 at 3:00am PST, 5:00am CST or 6:00am EST across the US. Set an alarm and you’ll be in Leonida before your coworkers have finished their first coffee.
Bad news for PS5 owners, unfortunately. The well-known New Zealand workaround doesn’t function on PlayStation, so you’ll be sitting through the entire wait while Xbox players are already hours in. Given how Rockstar has structured the release times, everyone with an Xbox will be playing before a single PS5 owner gets the chance.
(Yes, this is one of those rare console war battles that Xbox wins outright. Savour it while you can.)
Rockstar’s reasoning remains a mystery
Why Rockstar opted for a rolling launch isn’t clear. The most obvious theory, shielding servers from a stampede of players, falls apart on inspection, because GTA 6 won't have any online multiplayer at launch.
When the game lands in November, it will be a purely single-player affair. Judging by recent remarks from Take-Two, online functionality doesn't look likely to appear before 2027 at the earliest.
A gentler variant of the server explanation does still hold water, though. If enough people attempt to play GTA 6 on day one, Xbox and PlayStation’s own infrastructure could feel the strain, and spreading the launch across time zones might relieve some of that pressure.
Thirteen years of waiting
The hysteria becomes understandable once you crunch the numbers. Thirteen years have passed since the last Grand Theft Auto game, and the series sat out an entire console generation without a fresh entry.
Rockstar as a studio hasn’t released a major new title in eight years. Red Dead Redemption 2 arrived back in 2018.
Add those long gaps to a run of impressive trailers and the GTA 6 Extended Look on Netflix, and the sky-high anticipation is no surprise whatsoever.
The controversies arrived ahead of the game
As is customary for GTA, the drama turned up early. Some people have declared they’ll forbid their significant others from playing GTA 6 because of the game’s relationship mechanics.
Then there’s the physical edition situation, which has left plenty of people annoyed. GTA 6 boxes will sit on store shelves, but all you’ll find inside is a digital code. No disc whatsoever.
For collectors who cherish a shelf lined with cases, that hurts. For everyone else, it barely registers.
None of it seems likely to slow the momentum. When November 19 rolls around, GTA 6 looks set to be a runaway success, controversies or not.
Somewhere in Auckland, an Xbox owner is about to become the most envied person on the internet for roughly 24 hours.