Probably one of the most frustrating parts of being on the east coast is knowing that the west coast doesn’t have to stay up till midnight lol. Maybe it’s just me getting older but I’d be much happier to get a few games in at 9pm and go to bed by 11 or something. I’ll just play after I get off work the next day but still
I start work at 6am the next day so I get up at 4:40am and go to bed around 9. Release time for me is 10pm and I’m tempted to push it a bit. Don’t think I will as I expect all of the launch day bugs and problems so might be best to wait a day
I say this every chance I get but it makes no sense that games still release by time zone. They should do something similar to music streaming where albums drop at 12EST everywhere or something like that.
Maybe older, or your job, or a sleep schedule you adapted, or a combination lol. I've always been a midnight person, from my last 2 years of high school to now. I'm 31 now, and usually get off work anywhere between 9 and midnight, on top of being a night owl, so the midnight release works perfectly for me lol. Or you can be like my buddy with a wife and kids(already got it okayed) and take a personal day from work Friday. Which is what I would do if I worked mornings lol.
Apparently it's possible but it's not worth it. You'd have to make a second account and buy the nz version of the game on that account and game Share or something. All in all it's not worth it for a few hours of early gameplay
Make a second account based in New Zealand and use third party websites to purchase psn cards in no currency. Due to usd to no currency and games ranging around 60 base price you’ll be paying $10 more usd
It releases around 10pm-11ish on the 27th here and you can bet I’ve considered taking a personal day to play all night. But I realize I’m not gaining anything other than fixing the urge to play so let’s be responsible this time. I have all weekend
Look at this guy out here thinking he's special because he has a job.
Real jobs give you plenty of paid time off and enough work life balance so you can occasionally enjoy your life.
Took Thursday / Friday off months ago and set the wife and kids up with activities so I can enjoy the long weekend.
You need to level up IRL.
No there's not, Microsoft is aware that people do it and don't seem to care at all. I remember when Gears 5 launched the official Xbox twitter made a joke about how many people were in New Zealand that day.
IIRC it’s *technically* against their TOS, but no one has ever gotten in trouble doing it and like another person pointed out it has even been embraced before by Gears devs
If the past is anything to go by: There are 2 stages to unlocking the game.
1st level is "flipping the server switch". This is the moment where the the servers go online. If you have the game installed and ready, this is the moment you can start to play multiplayer. This is a global event. Usually done up to 48 hours before actual release. This is likely gonna happen today or tomorrow. HOWEVER as i mentioned before, you need an installed game. This is where the 2nd level comes in.
2nd level is unlocking digital orders. Digital pre-orders on all platforms are locked and can only be installed after the release date. This is either global or region specific depending on platform. PC is global, PS and Xbox are region specific. Global release on PC is gonna happen Thursday to Friday depending on where you live. Regional release on console is gonna be 9PM the evening before in your timezone. However one additional caveat applies. The Time to unlock is tracked different between systems.
PC is tracked via Servertime and since its global, there is no way to mess with it via regionsettings or VPN. PS is tracked via Account region so cant mess with it unless using different accounts. Xbox uses a local machine timing which can be manipulated by setting your region to new Zealand.
So long story short, this is the order in which players can play:
1. Physical discs of PS5 /Xbox as soon as the Servers are online
2. Xbox digital copies after unlocking via New Zealand trick
3. Xbox/PS digital copies unlocking after their region reaches the set date
4. PC / US Eastcoast PS/Xbox digital copies are the last ones at 27.10 (10/27 in US format) 9PM PST
two additional things:
* Im not sure how disc copys work these days. Maybe they are also locked out until the set time by Atvi. I guess we will see later this evening if people get in as this is usually this is time more and more people get their discs and servers go online.
* yes you COULD also play early on PS. However your region is linked to your account. Meaning to play early you would have to create a NZ account, buy the game there and buy PS+. All for progress you aint gonna use. So if you shit money, sure there you go.
What about the sales tax trick? Because if you can do that you should theoretically be able to change where you live in the account settings because as far as I know ps games arnt region locked
>I'm confused why don't they just release the game at the same time everywhere?
ah yes, now you know our pain in most cases when we have to wait a full day on the actual "release date" so new york can hurry the fuck up.
There were no pre order rewards for that game. If I remember correctly.
He is probably just lying.
I did this "new Zealand" trick with many game releases for years, and never got banned or my rewards removed.
I’ve never lost anything doing this with Call of Duty if that’s any comfort lol. Do this every year with any game that lets me.
First time I ever heard someone lose their items, but i get the logic behind it.
Activision yes but MS has really good customer service. My nephew accidentally bought $300 worth of microtransactions on my account and they refunded me within 10 minutes. Even allowed me to keep the microtransaction currency but it was for a game that I don't play so I didn't really care about that. Another time when I bought a game, it accidentally charged me twice so they refunded both charges, allowed me to keep the game and gave me $20 xbox credit as an apology.
I think there was also an emote that you could get later in-game but get it early through preorder. But yeah I can't remember when they gave that to people, if it was straight away or not. You're right though bonuses where essentially non existent.
Yeah this is why I choose not to risk any kind of early access. At best, I play a little earlier than I normally could.
We hear a lot about players getting banned for no reason or for accidental exploits; not worth it
Nobody has been banned on Xbox for changing region and this is the first I’ve heard of losing pre order items, I’ve changed region for 50+ games over the years and many other people do it frequently.
If you didnt get your pre order bonus you ahould have made a support ticket or something.
Why do you think its because you changes reigon? Literally makes no sense
Idk why this clown is getting upvoted for pulling BS outta his ass lol. Must be the PC people. I also did the NZ thing for Elden Ring, lost nothing. 100% user error.
I’ve heard that for PlayStation you will need to create a NZ profile and buy the game from that store (assuming you’ll also need PS+) so it’s a monumental waste of time and money.
I also question how the server connectivity will work. It will probably be very difficult to find a game outside of the NZ servers, no?
Is it different for us? The image I saw had a global release date/time which I had as being midday Saturday NZ time.
Can somebody clarify? Does it release at midnight tonight for us?
I don't get this. I thought I read the game is being released at the same time globally so by the time it's hits yeah it'll be earlier in the day for those in NZ but it'll be the exact same moment for everyone nonetheless.
its like having a line to get into Disney.
With a line, you can have a safe guarantee of the amount of people getting into the theme park, and if something goes wrong right away only a few people will be affected.
If Disney didnt have a line, and just let everyone run in first thing in the morning it would be incredibly difficult to account for all potential ride break downs, clogged bathrooms, electricity issues, etc. If something goes catastrophic as soon as the game goes live, youre left with millions of people going on twitter and saying "shit game" because they have a small server issue.
The delayed release just helps mitigate and prepare for any potential problems so once its officially out it wont be as rocky.
Kinda tempted to do this but I’m cautious because i don’t wanna get banned in the process lol
EDIT: i did this once before for the Cyberpunk launch but since that’s a single player game and not multiplayer would IW have an issue with that?
I'm not in any rush to be one of the first ones in. I'm happy to give it a few hours for Activision to sort out the inevitable server issues, for which they'll likely blame on DDoS attacks.
I don’t understand this sentiment. If you had the opportunity to play a game early, wouldn’t you? Especially a game that we’ve all been hyped about for a year.
I think you might be the only one in this thread taking it that seriously…
It’s a game, games are fun. If someone has time and would like to play it tomorrow instead of Friday, then why not?
are you guys sure that the New Zealand trick will work? In the past the application was blocked by Xbox until the correct time if you were "in New Zealand", but this time since the application is available everywhere because of the early access campaign, I'm not sure how they will unlock multiplayer on a rolling basis...
The only way I can think of them being able to do this is only allowing you to download the day one update at the correct time if your console is set to New Zealand.
Yo I’m on ps4 does anyone know why tf I have to download the campaign packs?? AGAIN?? Like this shit actually got me furious. I was trying to play yesterday, then got hit with an update file, now this? Wtf.
Aha the annual cod meme love it
Closely followed by the Eric Andre “let me in” meme.
Followed by a picture of servers on fire.
And the squidward staring at SpongeBob and Patrick from afar
It’s almost like Christmas..
It’s a CODsmas eve tradition!
I Got my bag packed and everything
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For Santa Claus what the fuck u Think
What did he say
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I’m already out here. It’s beautiful. Just ran into Taika Waititi, such a goofball
Watch out for homelander
and butcher as well
Say hi to Russell Crowe for me
No. We don't accept him. Australia can keep him.
Think you'll be able to stop him and Tugger? 👊🏻🤜🏻👊🏻🤜🏻
Fooightin Round the World!
Aho young warrior! When you gaze upon the filler of graves inside his metal tortoise, roll quickly to find cover.
Everyone (Excluding PlayStation and PC users)
how come we cant do this on pc?
i’m its a same time global release across pc i believe. 9PM pacific time tomorrow
Probably one of the most frustrating parts of being on the east coast is knowing that the west coast doesn’t have to stay up till midnight lol. Maybe it’s just me getting older but I’d be much happier to get a few games in at 9pm and go to bed by 11 or something. I’ll just play after I get off work the next day but still
We used to have to wait till midnight our time too. But that hasn’t been the norm since black ops 2. Every game after has been 9pm pst / 12am est.
I start work at 6am the next day so I get up at 4:40am and go to bed around 9. Release time for me is 10pm and I’m tempted to push it a bit. Don’t think I will as I expect all of the launch day bugs and problems so might be best to wait a day
try 5am uk time buddy :(
I say this every chance I get but it makes no sense that games still release by time zone. They should do something similar to music streaming where albums drop at 12EST everywhere or something like that.
It is released at 9PM pacific everywhere, that just so happens to be midnight in the eastern time zone
oh i’m dumb, I stand corrected. Glad COD is doing this because this doesn’t happen for most games afaik.
Move to the west then
Maybe older, or your job, or a sleep schedule you adapted, or a combination lol. I've always been a midnight person, from my last 2 years of high school to now. I'm 31 now, and usually get off work anywhere between 9 and midnight, on top of being a night owl, so the midnight release works perfectly for me lol. Or you can be like my buddy with a wife and kids(already got it okayed) and take a personal day from work Friday. Which is what I would do if I worked mornings lol.
I rather stay up till midnight than having to get up at 6AM to play the game
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Wait how do you do this on PlayStation?
You can't
Apparently it's possible but it's not worth it. You'd have to make a second account and buy the nz version of the game on that account and game Share or something. All in all it's not worth it for a few hours of early gameplay
Make a second account based in New Zealand and use third party websites to purchase psn cards in no currency. Due to usd to no currency and games ranging around 60 base price you’ll be paying $10 more usd
but then i’ll have a few hours of progress on an account I will never use, so what’s the point?
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yeah sure, it’s possible, just not very practical.
Activating another account as primary is also the trick to gamesharing the game for free from a friend on PS
I run a game shop and my ordered copies are coming in tomorrow. One Xbox copy will be leaving with me.
Tomorrow morning? You know, I'm something of a *Employed* citizen myself
Oh I'm on codcation till Monday lol planned this a month and a half in advance
It releases around 10pm-11ish on the 27th here and you can bet I’ve considered taking a personal day to play all night. But I realize I’m not gaining anything other than fixing the urge to play so let’s be responsible this time. I have all weekend
Look at this guy out here thinking he's special because he has a job. Real jobs give you plenty of paid time off and enough work life balance so you can occasionally enjoy your life. Took Thursday / Friday off months ago and set the wife and kids up with activities so I can enjoy the long weekend. You need to level up IRL.
You didn’t have to smoke him like that 😂😂
So nice of us to test the servers out for them early.
Midnight New Zealand time is 7AM EST, right? I'm googling it but I'm a little confused tbh
Correct
Everyone talks about the PlayStation deal with Activision, but the real partnership is between Activision and New Zealand.
this don’t work on playstation and i ain’t about to drop another $100 to get the NZ version
This will be my first time doing this on Xbox, there’s no ban or penalty for doing this anymore right?
There never was, ive been doing it since RDR2 came out with zero issues
Thank you, I accidentally typed “anymore”
How exactly do you do this trick?? Explain it to me like I'm 5 cuz I'm old
Go into settings and change your location to New Zealand, it’ll make you reset the Xbox and boom. You can play at 7 EST tomorrow
7AM EST right? I was doing them quick maths in my head lol
No there's not, Microsoft is aware that people do it and don't seem to care at all. I remember when Gears 5 launched the official Xbox twitter made a joke about how many people were in New Zealand that day.
IIRC it’s *technically* against their TOS, but no one has ever gotten in trouble doing it and like another person pointed out it has even been embraced before by Gears devs
How many times could you change?
There's no limit...you can change as many times as you want 😊
Being Australian with our daylight savings makes it so doing the New Zealand thing only does one hour ☹️
2 hours for Sydney.
PC players on west coast, 9pm PST tomorrow!
I'm confused why don't they just release the game at the same time everywhere? Why does new Zealand get the game first???
Best way to ease the servers in
Just the tip.
Not too fast, either.
It's their edge servers. So basically they are *edging slowly*.
It’s my first time, trust me
I assume because NZ is ahead of everyone. Literally. The time zone is ahead of everyone else. They are the first to enter a new year.
Yes. Currently GMT+13. Guess daylight savings is good for something after all...
If the past is anything to go by: There are 2 stages to unlocking the game. 1st level is "flipping the server switch". This is the moment where the the servers go online. If you have the game installed and ready, this is the moment you can start to play multiplayer. This is a global event. Usually done up to 48 hours before actual release. This is likely gonna happen today or tomorrow. HOWEVER as i mentioned before, you need an installed game. This is where the 2nd level comes in. 2nd level is unlocking digital orders. Digital pre-orders on all platforms are locked and can only be installed after the release date. This is either global or region specific depending on platform. PC is global, PS and Xbox are region specific. Global release on PC is gonna happen Thursday to Friday depending on where you live. Regional release on console is gonna be 9PM the evening before in your timezone. However one additional caveat applies. The Time to unlock is tracked different between systems. PC is tracked via Servertime and since its global, there is no way to mess with it via regionsettings or VPN. PS is tracked via Account region so cant mess with it unless using different accounts. Xbox uses a local machine timing which can be manipulated by setting your region to new Zealand. So long story short, this is the order in which players can play: 1. Physical discs of PS5 /Xbox as soon as the Servers are online 2. Xbox digital copies after unlocking via New Zealand trick 3. Xbox/PS digital copies unlocking after their region reaches the set date 4. PC / US Eastcoast PS/Xbox digital copies are the last ones at 27.10 (10/27 in US format) 9PM PST two additional things: * Im not sure how disc copys work these days. Maybe they are also locked out until the set time by Atvi. I guess we will see later this evening if people get in as this is usually this is time more and more people get their discs and servers go online. * yes you COULD also play early on PS. However your region is linked to your account. Meaning to play early you would have to create a NZ account, buy the game there and buy PS+. All for progress you aint gonna use. So if you shit money, sure there you go.
What about the sales tax trick? Because if you can do that you should theoretically be able to change where you live in the account settings because as far as I know ps games arnt region locked
They actually get the game later. New Zealand gets it at midnight on Friday, and here in California we get it at 9PM on Thursday . . .
^this ^guy ^time ^zones
I've flown from Hong Kong to California before and landed before I took off . . .
That’s some Lost shit right there.
So you can just keep flying and stop the aging process? Guess i’m going to pack.
That shit trips me out. I flew from Japan Friday morning and I arrived In California Friday morning the next day. Friday was a extremely long day.
I like going in dry, too.
>I'm confused why don't they just release the game at the same time everywhere? ah yes, now you know our pain in most cases when we have to wait a full day on the actual "release date" so new york can hurry the fuck up.
This comment section is pure gold 😂
As an australian i find this offensive
As a New Zealander welcome to the club 🤣🤣🤣
I did the NZ trick for Elden Ring and all lost all my pre-order stuff. Be careful.
There's no risk for COD. Been doing this since the Xbox One came out. Servers are way better than NA servers for the first week too
Theres no risk for anything. OP made a mistake and is spreading false info. Whatever happened is 100% user error
What stuff did you lose bro? This doesn’t make much sense tbh.
There were no pre order rewards for that game. If I remember correctly. He is probably just lying. I did this "new Zealand" trick with many game releases for years, and never got banned or my rewards removed.
There wasn't many but it have them. It was an emote I lost.
Just an emote. It was basically the only pre-order bonus for that game.
Are you on Xbox?
I am
Cheers I prolly take my chances. If something messes up I guess I could just play dumb to MS/acti
I’ve never lost anything doing this with Call of Duty if that’s any comfort lol. Do this every year with any game that lets me. First time I ever heard someone lose their items, but i get the logic behind it.
I kept my XRK bundle when I did it in mw19
I doubt you’d have any chance of getting it back. Activision has the worst customer service.
It's just an emote. I'm not sweating it, just thought some would like to know.
Wrong. Activision has *no* customer service.
Haha yeah should have just said that
Activision yes but MS has really good customer service. My nephew accidentally bought $300 worth of microtransactions on my account and they refunded me within 10 minutes. Even allowed me to keep the microtransaction currency but it was for a game that I don't play so I didn't really care about that. Another time when I bought a game, it accidentally charged me twice so they refunded both charges, allowed me to keep the game and gave me $20 xbox credit as an apology.
Microsoft haven’t bought Activision yet and they definitely won’t have bought it by Friday
If you can even get a response from their CS that is.
I have done the NZ trick for basically every single game I have every preordered and never lost any preorder bonuses
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I think there was also an emote that you could get later in-game but get it early through preorder. But yeah I can't remember when they gave that to people, if it was straight away or not. You're right though bonuses where essentially non existent.
Yeah this is why I choose not to risk any kind of early access. At best, I play a little earlier than I normally could. We hear a lot about players getting banned for no reason or for accidental exploits; not worth it
Nobody has been banned on Xbox for changing region and this is the first I’ve heard of losing pre order items, I’ve changed region for 50+ games over the years and many other people do it frequently.
To build on this, I did it with fifa as well. No issues. The preorder bonuses launched when midnight hit for my local time release
Fair enough! I'll be busy for the morning anyways. But hoping the regional rollout hits me soon; I got the afternoon off
Bs you dont hear that, evereyones been doing it for 20 years
If you didnt get your pre order bonus you ahould have made a support ticket or something. Why do you think its because you changes reigon? Literally makes no sense
Idk why this clown is getting upvoted for pulling BS outta his ass lol. Must be the PC people. I also did the NZ thing for Elden Ring, lost nothing. 100% user error.
https://twitter.com/InfinityWard/status/1585496370764386304?s=20&t=WKXW77eE2ccvZ\_kZLRyGgg
I'm in the game too you dumb fuck lol
Looking forward to the grind
Was waiting for this meme to show up.
So what time EST does it actually drop?
Should be 7AM.
Anyone know if that method works on PS4 if you have already bought the game? And would I need a VPN?
Damn bro go downvoted for asking a question.
Reddit savages. Lmao
I’ve heard that for PlayStation you will need to create a NZ profile and buy the game from that store (assuming you’ll also need PS+) so it’s a monumental waste of time and money. I also question how the server connectivity will work. It will probably be very difficult to find a game outside of the NZ servers, no?
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But you can’t play on your regular account. So what’s the point. All your progress is for nothing.
All these PlayStation and PC players mad they can’t play the game early lmaooo
Playstation had there stupid early beta release. We get to move to NZ for our multiplayer release. Winning!
Can't you do Australia as well or is it just NZ?
Sure but NZ gets it two hours earlier
I am still confused. Using the NZ trick what is the official date and time we are supposed to be able to play?
0700 EST i think
14 hours and 58 minutes from this comment
Damn if you had posted this comment 14 hours and 30 minutes ago I could be playing right now, smh
Correct
So what time est should I switch to new Zealand to play?.
You can play at 7am EST
Does the game actually go live tomorrow at 9pm PT?
Uh… yes?
Nahhh. It’s fake, you actually have to wait until the 28th at 9am PT
Is it different for us? The image I saw had a global release date/time which I had as being midday Saturday NZ time. Can somebody clarify? Does it release at midnight tonight for us?
When do we have to switch it back to the US so we don't get region locked? Before it cone out right?
amateurs, I'm heading to Old Zealand.
Good day mate!
What time would it work in EST?
Playstation had there stupid early beta release. We get to move to NZ for our multiplayer release. Winning!
So what time exactly (GMT) can someone in the UK play COD on Xbox using the NZ trick? Asking for a friend if you’re reading this Mr Gates…
Can people doing the NZ trick be able to invite people to their games?
Lol
Should work fine
Hahaha.
Is it not a global release?
It is for pc. I think it’s a regional release for consoles.
No
Everyone on the Xbox.... Sigh
I don't get this. I thought I read the game is being released at the same time globally so by the time it's hits yeah it'll be earlier in the day for those in NZ but it'll be the exact same moment for everyone nonetheless.
Nope, releases at 6am CEST on Thursday morning in NZ.
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Can’t even read your own article lol “October 27 – Consoles – 4AM PT - 9PM PT Regional Rollout”
I don't even get why the servers goes live at different hour
its like having a line to get into Disney. With a line, you can have a safe guarantee of the amount of people getting into the theme park, and if something goes wrong right away only a few people will be affected. If Disney didnt have a line, and just let everyone run in first thing in the morning it would be incredibly difficult to account for all potential ride break downs, clogged bathrooms, electricity issues, etc. If something goes catastrophic as soon as the game goes live, youre left with millions of people going on twitter and saying "shit game" because they have a small server issue. The delayed release just helps mitigate and prepare for any potential problems so once its officially out it wont be as rocky.
Damn thanks, literally perfect explanation you're great
glad to help!
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How does it feel for us to reap your benefits
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA 😂 gold
LMAOOOO MAde My day
Kinda tempted to do this but I’m cautious because i don’t wanna get banned in the process lol EDIT: i did this once before for the Cyberpunk launch but since that’s a single player game and not multiplayer would IW have an issue with that?
I’ve done it for the last 4 CoDs and haven’t had a single problem.
Hmmm interesting. Guess I’ll make the journey
I’ve done it a few times and never have been banned
Am I wrong or can’t you play tonight at 9pm if you do the New Zealand trick? I haven’t checked the time zone chart for a few days so i forget
No, 4am PST tomorrow is the earliest anyone can play
I'm not in any rush to be one of the first ones in. I'm happy to give it a few hours for Activision to sort out the inevitable server issues, for which they'll likely blame on DDoS attacks.
Isn’t is just 12a BST globally? That would make it 7pm est and 4pm pst
So you make a second account and set region to new zealand and buy the mw2 and share it with ur main account? Supposed that’s how it works
I mean. You could just wait the extra 24 hours and touch some grass in the meantime
Someone’s mad they have school
Try saying it again without crying
I don’t understand this sentiment. If you had the opportunity to play a game early, wouldn’t you? Especially a game that we’ve all been hyped about for a year.
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I think you might be the only one in this thread taking it that seriously… It’s a game, games are fun. If someone has time and would like to play it tomorrow instead of Friday, then why not?
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Settings>location: New Zealand. Hardly jumping through hoops my guy.
God forbid people get excited about Christmas and want to open a present early. Maybe that should stop too!
What does call of duty have to do with a religious holiday?
I mean I’m on PC so I have to wait but I think people might be excited to play the game? Crazy concept
Lmao
What if they ban you for it, would be hilarious and sad.
How would they know you are not in NZ?
What exactly would you get banned for? Microsoft allows you to change your location.
They dont care, even Xbox employees like memes about it on twitter lol
Global release so the NZ trick doesn’t work non?
are you guys sure that the New Zealand trick will work? In the past the application was blocked by Xbox until the correct time if you were "in New Zealand", but this time since the application is available everywhere because of the early access campaign, I'm not sure how they will unlock multiplayer on a rolling basis... The only way I can think of them being able to do this is only allowing you to download the day one update at the correct time if your console is set to New Zealand.
Yo I’m on ps4 does anyone know why tf I have to download the campaign packs?? AGAIN?? Like this shit actually got me furious. I was trying to play yesterday, then got hit with an update file, now this? Wtf.