October 2, 2018 Eurogamer and Lizo Mzimba say the leaked Harry Potter RPG is real, but is not developed by Rocksteady.
Earlier today, a Redditor posted some legit-seeming footage of a Harry Potter RPG online, along with a description that reads like marketing boilerplate. Supposedly, the game will be set in the 19th century, and cast the player as a wizard who enters Hogwarts during their fifth year after a latent and unique talent for magic is discovered.
That footage has now been pulled via a copyright strike by Warner Bros Interactive, who own the videogame rights. That’s a bit of a hint in itself, but now Eurogamer has claimed, citing its own sources, that the Harry Potter RPG is indeed real. Lizo Mzimba – who you may remember from BBC’s Newsround – adds that its working title is Harry Potter: Magic Awakened, and that “other Potter games are also thought to be on the way.”
The original poster, u/VapeThisBro (via Press Start), claims to have been approached in a shopping mall to watch a game trailer and fill in a survey. Soon after your arrival, “strange events begin to materialise in the Forbidden Forest and trouble begins to brew within the castle walls”. Apparently you’ll become “one of eight different wizard types”, choose your house and your friends at Hogwarts, and “decide to pursue a path of good and evil.” The game is supposedly an “open-world action RPG” that will let you freely explore the Wizarding World for the first time, in an all-new story separate from the books or films.
Though Rocksteady has been hiring for and quietly working on a new triple-A game for some time, Eurogamer’s reporting appears to have ruled them out for this project. That leaves former Disney Infinity developer Avalanche Software (as opposed to Avalanche Studios) as the likeliest candidate for Potter.
Am told this is from a yet to be announced RPG currently titled Harry Potter Magic Awakened, although other titles including Magic Forever are also in the mix. Other Potter games are also thought to be on the way @TomPhillipsEG @ComicBook #HarryPotterMagicAwakened #HarryPotter https://t.co/bgXliE0Hme
— lizo mzimba (@lizo_mzimba) October 2, 2018
The original video (which you can view via a mirror here) showed several highly detailed environments in Hogwarts and its grounds, some high-end modeling and animation work, a character creator, and a number of UI elements that hint at different spells and systems. As a trailer showcasing the key features of a triple-A open-world RPG, it was pretty credible.
There’s one bit that does raise eyebrows, though: that part where a goblin gets impaled. I mean, I know later Harry Potter books get a bit dark, but that seems a bit dicey for a kids’ game. Perhaps WB are taking more of a ‘young adult’ direction?