GTA 6 confirms regional unlock times as Xbox and PS5 users plan for early hands-on

Grand Theft Auto VI is truly within touching distance, with Rockstar Games now having confirmed precisely when players can expect to jump into the highly anticipated title.

Surprisingly, GTA VI is opting for a traditional phased rollout, going live at midnight on November 19 in each respective region.

As has always been the case, that means those in New Zealand will unlock the game first, but here’s the order you can expect come launch day.

All timings are provided in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC, with all timings converting to midnight in local time zones.

GTA 6 global unlock times confirmed in order of release

Rockstar Games

November 18, 11am UTC

• New Zealand

November 18, 1pm UTC

• Australia

November 18, 3pm UTC

• Japan
• South Korea

November 18, 4pm UTC

• Hong Kong
• Taiwan
• Malaysia
• Singapore

November 18, 5pm UTC

• Thailand
• Indonesia

November 18, 6.30pm UTC

• India

November 18, 8pm UTC

• UAE

November 18, 9pm UTC

• Saudi Arabia
• Turkey

November 18, 10pm UTC

• Finland
• Romania
• South Africa
• Ukraine
• Greece

November 18, 11pm UTC

• Germany
• France
• Spain
• Italy
• Demark
• Poland
• Norway
• Switzerland
• Hungary
• Austria
• Belgium
• Czechia
• Sweden
• Netherlands

November 19, 12am UTC

• UK
• Ireland
• Portugal

November 19, 3am UTC

• Brazil
• Chile
• Argentina
• Paraguay
• Uraguay

November 19, 4am UTC

• Bolivia

November 19, 5am UTC

• USA
• Canada
• Colombia
• Peru
• Ecuador

November 19, 6am UTC

• Mexico
• El Salvador
• Guatemala
• Honduras
• Nicaragua

As you can see, those within North and South America are among some of the last to go hands-on with GTA VI.

In the US, for example, gamers will unlock the game approximately 18 hours after those in New Zealand.

If you simply can’t handle that, well, there are ways you can go about getting hands-on earlier, with it proving to be much easier on Xbox than it is on PlayStation.

READ MORE: You can still grab GTA 6's Ultimate Edition for $20 if you want the full experience

How to play GTA 6 early on Xbox

To play GTA VI earlier than your region’s unlock time, you’re going to need to dupe your Xbox into thinking you’re based in New Zealand.

To do that, head to your console’s settings, which you can access by pressing the Xbox icon on your controller, then navigate to ‘Profile & System’ and ‘Settings’.

There, select ‘System’ and ‘Language & Location’. Choose New Zealand under location and then restart your console.

This method doesn’t require a VPN or anything complicated, so it’s probably something most Xbox users will try.

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How to play GTA 6 early on PlayStation

Playing GTA VI early on a PS5 console isn’t quite so straightforward.

You’ll have to create a whole new PlayStation Network account, selecting New Zealand as the account’s region.

You can then sign in on your PS5 using that account. Of course, the new account won’t have any games, so you’ll need to head to the PlayStation Store to purchase GTA VI in the local currency.

You can then play it at the New Zealand unlock time from that account or you can make the game playable on your regular account.

To do that, head to ‘Settings’ on the New Zealand account, followed by ‘Users and Accounts’ and ‘Other’.

Click ‘Console Sharing and Offline Play’ and choose ‘Enable’. If you switch to your usual account, you should find the New Zealand-purchased version of the game works at an earlier time.

We don’t exactly recommend this, though as it's all a bit long-winded- especially as purchasing the game requires New Zealand Dollars.

You’ve waited this long. You can’t wait a few more hours.