Elden Ring release time arrives on PC, here's what to do if it won't unlock

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PC players in the western hemisphere get to access The Lands Between a little early

Elden Ring
(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

Update: Some Elden Ring players on PC are having trouble starting the game despite it being officially released in their region, but there may be an easy fix.

Would-be Tarnished took to social media to share the unpleasant surprise that the game didn't seem to be unlocking at the appointed hour. If you're still struggling to boot up your game, you may be able to get things underway simply by restarting Steam, or failing that, rebooting your PC. Multiple users have reported that this was all their Steam client needed to start the unlocking process.

Original story: Elden Ring release times for territories across the world have been revealed, confirming exactly when you'll be able to enter The Lands Between.

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In the US, Elden Ring will unlock on console at 21:00 PT/23:00 CT/00:00 local time ET. It'll arrive slightly earlier on PC, however - at 15:00 PT/ 17:00 CT/18:00 ET.

In the UK, Elden Ring will launch at midnight GMT on February 25 on console, and an hour earlier, at 23:00, February 24 on PC. Finally, in Australia and New Zealand, it'll arrive on February 25 at midnight local time AEDT and NZDT for console, and 10:00 and 12:00 respectively on PC.

Elsewhere, the tweet outlines release times in territories including Russia, South Africa, Brazil, Korea, Japan, and the UAE, so you're covered no matter where you're hoping to play from. The tweet also confirms that you'll be able to pre-load Elden Ring "48 hours prior to these times on Steam and PlayStation," and that pre-load is available now on Xbox Series X.

It's not exactly clear why there's such a discrepancy between PC and console, or indeed why some parts of the world have such a headstart on others - if you live in California, you'll have access to the game up to nine hours before its official release date on February 25.

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Ali Jones
Ali Jones
Managing Editor, News

I'm GamesRadar's Managing Editor for news, shaping the news strategy across the team. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.

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