New Zealand’s game studios had a big year. The NZGDA’s 2025 annual survey found local developers earned NZD 759.57 million before tax in 2024/25, a 38.6% jump on the year before. A lot of great games are being made here at home.
Plenty of us are playing too. The New Zealand Plays 2025 report from Bond University and IGEA found that 91% of NZ households include someone who plays video games.
All those hours add up to something. You’ve got libraries built one sale at a time, skins earned over whole seasons and save files you’d never want to start again. You’ve also got friend lists going back years, and most of it sits behind a single login.
That’s where two-factor authentication (2FA) comes in. Below, we’ll look at what your account holds and how 2FA works, including the perks it unlocks. Then we’ll cover which method suits your setup and how to get the whole household sorted, drawing on research from Bond University, Microsoft and the FIDO Alliance along the way. First, though, it’s worth looking at what’s sitting in that account of yours.
Your Gaming Account Is a Trophy Cabinet
Think about the first game you bought on your current account. For many of us, that was a long time ago. The NZ Plays 2025 research puts the average Kiwi player at around 36 years old, which means a lot of you have been building your collections since your teens.
It’s rarely a solo hobby, either. The same study found that 54% of NZ parents play games with their children to bond as a family, and 48% of 18 to 34 year olds have made connections through games. Your friend list might hold a flatmate from uni, a cousin in Brisbane and a squad you’ve teamed up with every Thursday night for years.
Dr Jeffrey Brand, Professor at Bond University and co-author of the report, summed up what players gain from all of this:
“Connection with others, managing stress and depression, developing emotional intelligence, increased resilience, and building self-confidence were all identified as mental health benefits of playing video games.”
That’s the part that’s hard to put a price on.
You can sometimes buy a skin again, or trade for a rare item. The history tied to your account is different. That achievement you unlocked at 2am, or the co-op save you share with your kid, works more like a family photo album; there’s no reprinting it.
Most of us also run more than one entertainment account these days. You might have a Steam library for weekend co-op and a PlayStation profile for the big releases. Some of you might also sign in to play live dealer vegastar games at the virtual tables. Each account carries its own history, and some hold a balance as well.
Each one deserves the same care, and that’s where a second key comes in.
How 2FA Pays You Back
2FA asks for two things when you sign in. The first is something you know, which is your password. The second is something you have, usually your phone. If your password ever ends up in the wrong hands, that second check still stands between it and your account.
The evidence for how well this works is strong. A Microsoft research paper looked at accounts flagged for suspicious activity in 2022. It found that MFA cut the risk of compromise by 99.22%, and where a password had already leaked, the risk still dropped by 98.56%. Those were work accounts rather than gaming ones, but signing in works the same way.
On several big platforms, turning on 2FA also gets you extra features alongside the extra protection.
| Platform | What 2FA unlocks or improves |
| Epic Games / Fortnite | 2FA is required for gifting in Fortnite and for entering competitive events |
| Steam | Removes trade and Market holds once the Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator has been active for 7 days |
| PlayStation | Lets you sign in with a passkey using your fingerprint, face scan or PIN, with no password needed |
| Roblox | Offers an optional Enhanced Protection setting using a passkey or hardware security key |
Steam’s version is especially handy if you trade. Without the authenticator, holds can last up to 15 days. Once it’s been running on your account for a week, they go away.
Good platforms tend to build checks into other parts of the experience too, such as asking you to verify your ID before a withdrawal. When a service asks you to prove it’s you, it’s looking after what’s yours, and on some platforms it hands you a bonus as well.
Pick Your Player Two
Once you decide to switch 2FA on, you’ll usually get a choice of methods. They all add protection, but some do more than others.
That same Microsoft study found SMS codes were 40.8% less effective than the Microsoft Authenticator app. A text code still beats having nothing; an app on your phone just does the job better.
Then there are passkeys. These let you sign in with a fingerprint, face scan or device PIN instead of typing a password, and they’re catching on fast. The FIDO Alliance’s State of Passkeys 2026 report surveyed 11,000 adults across 10 countries, Australia included. It found 90% of consumers know about passkeys, and 75% have turned them on for at least some accounts. PlayStation also points out that passkeys can’t be guessed or reused, which is exactly what you want guarding a collection.
A simple ranking, strongest first:
- Passkey or hardware security key: the top pick wherever it’s offered, such as on PlayStation or with Roblox Enhanced Protection
- Authenticator app: a strong all-rounder for Steam, Epic and most other platforms
- SMS code: much better than a password alone, though the least protective of the three
- Backup codes: store them somewhere safe, as Roblox recommends, so you can always get back in
A good rule is to use the strongest option each platform offers, then get on with your day. The same goes for any account that holds a balance, like your Vegastar account. Give it a password you don’t use anywhere else and turn on the best login protection in your settings. If you want to go further, there are a few more ways to keep your sensitive information safe while gaming worth adding to your routine.
Your phone probably already unlocks your banking app and maybe even your front door. Why shouldn’t it look after your game collection too?
Make It a Household Habit
Account security works best when the whole whānau’s involved, especially in homes where kids, parents and grandparents share the same consoles.
Platforms are helping here. In early 2026, Roblox updated its account recovery rules. If you use 2-step verification and lose access to your main method, you now need two separate recovery methods to prove the account is yours. That ties recovery to devices your family owns, so a lost SIM card on its own can’t open the door.
Downloads are the other half of the habit. Kaspersky’s research recorded 19,038,175 attack attempts that used the names of games popular with Gen Z between April 2024 and March 2025, many of them disguised as mods, cheats and installers. The fix is easy: get your games and add-ons from official stores and launchers. Kaspersky also recommends using 2FA on Steam, Epic Games and Discord, along with a different password for each account.
We like the idea of treating your accounts the way you’d treat a car’s warrant of fitness. Once a year, sit down together and do a quick check:
- Make sure 2FA is on everywhere.
- Update the recovery email and phone number.
- Confirm the backup codes are stored somewhere safe.
It takes about as long as a single match. Knowing where official help lives is part of that check too, so bookmark the support page for each platform you use. That way, you’ll always know where to go with an account question.
Guard the Story You’ve Built
Your gaming account holds years of play, friendships, and shared family moments. 2FA protects all of that with one small extra step when you sign in, and on platforms like Fortnite and Steam, it also unlocks features you’d otherwise miss. Choosing a stronger method adds more protection, and making it a household habit means everyone at home is covered.
Signing in is also getting easier and safer at the same time. Microsoft found that 99.99% of MFA-enabled accounts stayed protected during its study period. With passkeys spreading across PlayStation, Roblox and beyond, the strongest options are often now the quickest ones too.
Pick one account tonight. Open the security settings, switch on 2FA (or a passkey, if it’s offered) and save your backup codes. Then do the next one tomorrow.
Advisory Notice: Remember that gambling is entertainment, not a moneymaking strategy. Set a budget beforehand that you’re okay losing, and set your boundaries early. If chasing losses or a sense of pressure to keep playing creeps in, that’s the moment to pause.