Skip to main content

We’re all wizards now — ‘Pokémon Go’ developer sets its sights on Harry Potter

harry potter niantic announced
Niantic, the developer of 2016’s breakout augmented reality hit Pokémon Go, announced its follow-up: Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, set in J. K. Rowling’s wizarding world of Harry Potter. Niantic is developing the AR title in partnership with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment’s Portkey Games label, promising more details about the game in 2018.

Harry Potter: Wizards Unite will follow the same basic principle as Pokémon Go: That the real world hides magical secrets just beneath the surface, though details on any particulars of what the game looks and plays like are nowhere to be found currently. “By exploring real-world neighborhoods and cities across the globe,” Niantic’s press release reads, “players will go on adventures, learn and cast spells, discover mysterious artifacts, and encounter legendary beasts and iconic characters.”

Related Videos

Pokémon Go and Niantic’s first major AR game, Ingress, both relied on a faction-driven metagame to connect players and structure the whole experience. Niantic’s release focuses on the individual role-playing experience of going on adventures, collecting items, and learning spells, but gives no indication of any larger structure. Rowling’s obvious analog in the world of Harry Potter is the house system at Hogwart’s Academy, where a sentient hat sorts students into one of four student houses based on their personalities.

Late summer 2016 was utterly defined by Pokémon Go for a lot of people, especially if they lived in a major city, sparking a flurry of interest in AR games. Players, critics, and bystanders were all enchanted by what seemed like a wholly new type of game, using the tools of video games to get people engaging with the real world around them. Unfortunately, the magic wore off pretty quickly, and a lack of features available at launch (such as any meaningful way to interact with other players) meant that the player base rapidly atrophied except for all but the most diehard trainers. Steady updates up through the present have made for a more rewarding game than what most players experienced at launch, but a rushed release and chronic server issues meant that most players left before they would ever see it.

The success of Harry Potter: Wizards Unite will depend on whether the game can sustain a critical mass of its early adopters. The massive release of Pokémon Go no doubt taught Niantic a lot, and as a global brand Harry Potter may have stronger cache than Pokémon, so it will be interesting to see whether Niantic can not only make lightning strike twice but cultivate that spark into a steady blaze.

Editors' Recommendations

Gather your wands and take a first look at Harry Potter: Wizards Unite
portkey games new harry potter label glasses

Pokémon Go developer Niantic has been hard at work on its next augmented reality (AR) game, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. While details on the project have been scarce, Platform 9 ¾ has been opened up, giving future wizards a chance to see how the game will work.

Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is similar in structure to Pokémon Go, and it will feature characters from the original books and movie series, as well as the two Fantastic Beasts films. Your goal is to prevent "The Calamity" from revealing wizarding secrets to the world, and you'll have plenty of help from your fellow wizards.

Read more
Lifeprint’s Harry Potter printer adds motion magic to photos
lifeprint harry potter printer adds fun elements from the wizzarding world 1

 

Unlike the static photos of the Muggle world, in Harry Potter’s, photos come to life. For anyone who has seen the fantasy films or read the books, moving photos are one of those fun elements of the Wizarding World, the universe first introduced by J.K. Rowling in the book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, 20 years ago (technically, the book was released in the U.K. in 1997, and released in the U.S. in 1998).

Read more
‘Pokémon Go’ studio Niantic plans to add trainer battles by the end of the year
POKEMON GO

Play Together, Trade Together!

Pokémon Go has been available on iOS and Android for well over two years at this point, and developer Niantic recently updated it to add trading, which had been a requested feature since the game's initial launch. Pokémon battles between trainers still aren't in the game, but it appears that won't be the case for much longer.

Read more