Flying to New Zealand to play Modern Warfare 2 early may get you locked out

Infinity Ward has excitedly warned modern warfare 2 players eager to jump into multiplayer as soon as possible, that changing their console region to access the game before it actually goes live where they are physically located will cause “connectivity issues”.

On top of that, the developer could prevent players from accessing the game entirely until it is officially released in their region.

The warning was delivered in an official tweet from the studio, posted on Twitter a few hours ago.

Changing the region of a console to play a game a few hours early is an old trick that many gamers should be familiar with by now. New Zealand is usually the most popular choice there, as it is the first region where the new day begins, earning it the name “old New Zealand trick” in the community.

Of course, this only works on games with rolling release, which is true of Modern Warfare 2, at least on consoles. To refresh you, here are the release times for PC and the release times for consoles.

It’s unclear if using a VPN will change the outcome here, but a few hours of early access is generally not worth the risk. Developers rarely enforce those rules though, so it will be interesting to see if players get locked out this time around.

In case you missed it, here’s our review of the Modern Warfare 2 campaign. The campaign is available to play right now for players who pre-ordered digitally, and the full release is hours away. Preloading is also active on all platforms.