Photo Credit: Jaap Buitendijk/Warner Bros.
Footage of what appears to be a Harry Potter game currently in development was leaked Tuesday, which shows a character creation screen, exploring areas such as Hogwarts’ Great Hall, potions and spells, and running around from third-person perspective. The video has since been taken down after Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment filed a copyright claim, suggesting the footage is indeed from a game, which has been confirmed by reports.
A Reddit user with the handle ‘VapeThisBro’ (whose account doesn’t exist anymore) uploaded the leaked footage to YouTube on Tuesday, claiming they recorded it after being asked to take part in a focus group study at a mall. The video was accompanied by marketing blurb, which says that the Harry Potter game is an ‘open-world action RPG’ which will be set in the 19th century and follow a character who gets late acceptance to Hogwarts, in the fifth year.
The Forbidden Forest will have an important role to play in the all-new original story that is “separate from the books or films”, it adds, involving someone known as Professor Elezar Fig. Players will able to choose from eight different Wizard classes as they go up against dark wizards and goblins, while being free to pick their own house and choose “a path of good or evil”.
Eurogamer and BBC News have since confirmed the project’s existence. The former revealed that Utah, US-based Avalanche Software, the studio behind the now-defunct Disney Infinity series, is working on the Harry Potter game and that it’s still “at least a year away” from release. BBC reporter Lizo Mzimba tweeted later that several titles are being considered including ‘Harry Potter Magic Awakened’ and ‘Harry Potter Magic Forever’.
Mzimba added that other Harry Potter video games are “also thought to be on the way”. We are already aware of one: Pokemon Go developer Niantic is working on Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, which is expected to release sometime next year. It all forms a part of J.K. Rowling’s expansion of her Wizarding World, including the stage play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the controversial Fantastic Beasts film universe, and the launch of Portkey Games under Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment that gave us the terrible Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery earlier this year.
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