As we slowly get closer and closer to Grand Theft Auto 6‘s long-awaited release on November 19, fans have already been gearing up by purchasing new consoles to play it on or even GTA 6’s officially licensed controller. Even though most of GTA 6’s speculation lately has been around its brand-new gameplay features, a recent update on when we can actually play the game is even more exciting.
As noted by Dexerto, users on the GTA fan site GTAVice.net have dug through the digital store pages for the PlayStation 5 version of GTA 6, which have revealed 15 individual regional release windows for the game that outline just when you’ll be able to play based on your region.
GTA 6 Global Release Timings Have Been Revealed
The most interesting aspect of GTA 6’s release window reveal is that it confirms Rockstar’s latest release will be timed to launch at midnight based on individual release timings rather than a simultaneous global release, meaning some fans will get to access the game hours before millions of other players in the following regions.
|
Countries/Regions |
Global Time (UTC) |
Local Time |
|---|---|---|
|
New Zealand |
Nov 18, 11:00 |
12:00 AM NZDT |
|
Australia |
Nov 18, 13:00 |
12:00 AM AEDT |
|
Japan, South Korea |
Nov 18, 15:00 |
12:00 AM JST/KST |
|
Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan |
Nov 18, 16:00 |
12:00 AM UTC+8 |
|
Indonesia, Thailand |
Nov 18, 17:00 |
12:00 AM UTC+7 |
|
India |
Nov 18, 18:30 |
12:00 AM IST |
|
United Arab Emirates |
Nov 18, 20:00 |
12:00 AM GST |
|
Saudi Arabia, Turkey |
Nov 18, 21:00 |
12:00 AM UTC+3 |
|
Bulgaria, Cyprus, Finland, Greece, Israel, Romania, South Africa, Ukraine |
Nov 18, 22:00 |
12:00 AM UTC+2 |
|
Central Europe |
Nov 18, 23:00 |
12:00 AM CET |
|
Iceland, Ireland, Portugal, United Kingdom |
Nov 19, 00:00 |
12:00 AM GMT |
|
Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay |
Nov 19, 03:00 |
12:00 AM UTC−3 |
|
Bolivia |
Nov 19, 04:00 |
12:00 AM BOT |
|
United States, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru |
Nov 19, 05:00 |
12:00 AM EST/UTC−5 |
|
Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua |
Nov 19, 06:00 |
12:00 AM CST |
While this does avoid the problems of some fans completely missing the launch at ridiculous hours like 4 AM, this does mean if you don’t live in a country with a further time zone like New Zealand or Australia, you’ll have to wait up to 7 hours longer to play GTA 6 on release.
Even the region where GTA 6 was made is out of luck as well, as North American fans will be among the last players to actually get access to the game between 17 and 14 hours later than when it launches for New Zealand players, depending on which timezone you’re in.
How To Play GTA 6 Ahead Of Its Official Release
While the dates seem like a brutal amount of time to go without being able to access Grand Theft Auto 6, considering the sheer amount of spoilers that are inevitably going to flood the internet when it launches, players have already mentioned a way that you might be able to get around the limitation.
If you’re an Xbox player, one of the first things you should do to prepare for GTA 6’s release is to swap your console’s location to New Zealand, which has helped players avoid regional release times on numerous occasions in the past. PlayStation players are a bit out of luck, unfortunately, as you’ll not only need to make a New Zealand account specifically for GTA 6, but also purchase the game from that region’s store.
While it’s a bit ironic that Xbox fans might have the chance to play Grand Theft Auto 6 almost an entire day before PlayStation users with this trick, given the close marketing partnership between Rockstar and Sony over the past year, we’ll have to wait and see if the trick even still works when November finally rolls around.
