How to Play State of Decay 2 Early With Xbox Game Pass

State of Decay 2 has already been available over the weekend for those that purchased the Ultimate Edition, but Xbox Game Pass owners can also now download the game through a few settings changes.

Microsoft's survival exclusive isn't due out until tomorrow on May 22 when everyone who owns a Game Pass subscription will get it for free. It's already out in New Zealand, however, a factor that means you can download and play it now if you don't mind changing your system's region over to New Zealand for a while. Xbox One owners have been quick to help each other out within the console's subreddit when questions started popping up about the Game Pass workaround.

Gamepass users can download state of decay 2 now from New Zealand store. from r/xboxone

Getting the game now really is as simple as the Redditor above explained. They're far from the first person to post such guides as well as others have submitted walkthroughs for how to download State of Decay 2 early and successfully play it without issue, and there will likely be many more threads about the topic before the game is officially out everywhere.

There's been some discussion within the threads regarding whether or not this would be a violation of Microsoft's terms of service. It's worth pointing out that this same method worked for Sea of Thieves when it was released months ago – a trend that makes it look as though future Game Pass games will be playable early in a similar manner – though the pirate game's developer did warn against trying to obtain instant access to the game. In a post on the Sea of Thieves forums that was submitted two months ago, Rare said that it appreciated fans' eagerness to get started but cited the "Don't circumvent any restrictions on access to or availability of the Services" line in Microsoft's Services Agreement before locking a thread about accessing it early.

Even if you don't decide to get State of Decay 2 early or would rather just wait until later in the evening when the game starts rolling out everywhere, you can already get some first impressions from others who bought the Ultimate Edition. Those players have been active for the entire weekend and have already gotten their footing in the zombie-filled world, but they'll soon be joined by everyone else when the game releases on May 22.