Content Type: Gaming News
Date: February 2, 2023
Hogwarts Legacy comes out in less than a week, and Wizarding World fans around the world are no doubt planning their schedule around their playtime. That planning just got a little easier, now that the start of the Early Access Period has been announced. Note that the times listed below are only for people who have purchased the Digital Deluxe Edition of the game, as that’s the version that will allow you to play during the Early Access period.
- PC Early Access Period: February 7th, 10am PST / 1PM EST / 6PM UTC
- Console Early Access Period: February 7th, Midnight (00:00AM) Local Time
- Los Angeles, USA: February 6th at 9:00 PT
The Console release times are based on your local time, with one exception. Fortunately, there’s an official map to make things easier, in case you don’t know when midnight is in your region:
Some PC players are not happy about the announced times, since they’ll have to wait at least 11 hours longer than console players to start playing — or nearly 24 hours relative to console players in New Zealand.
So it’s not 72hrs early access as marketed and promised? Yet console gets the full 72hrs? Great.
— Connor (@Luxrrrr) February 2, 2023
While that part’s true, it seems very likely that the early access period will be 72 hours pre-release, suggesting that the normal release times will also be later on PC. Of course, nuance and facts take second fiddle to outrage on social media, so the fact that the access period is probably still 72 hours won’t stop folks from being upset.
For players with slower internet, preloading is obviously a concern — in the comments on the twitter announcement, WB Games Support shed some light on how it will work for PS5 (and reminded us that it’s currently available on Xbox):
Hi Garrick, thanks for this question! Xbox predownloading is currently live and predownloading for PS5 will most likely occur 48 hours before Early Access begins. If we can help with anything else, please let us know!
— WB Games Support (@WBGamesSupport) February 2, 2023
Sadly, it appears that it won’t be possible to preload on PC, perhaps in an effort by WB Games to slow down the time it takes before the game is cracked. Given that the game is 85GB, many players will probably need to wake up, start the download, and go back to sleep — if they can even manage to while knowing they’ll soon be exploring Hogwarts Castle.
Got plans for the release date? Will you be playing during the Early Access Period? Let us know in the comments!
