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

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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.”

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.

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Will Fulton
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Will Fulton is a New York-based writer and theater-maker. In 2011 he co-founded mythic theater company AntiMatter Collective…
Gather your wands and take a first look at Harry Potter: Wizards Unite
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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.

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Namely, it likes that Microsoft will give the cloud gaming rights for Activision Blizzard games to Ubisoft. "The prior sale of the cloud gaming rights will establish Ubisoft as a key supplier of content to cloud gaming services, replicating the role that Activision would have played in the market as an independent player," the CMA explained in a press release. "In contrast to the original deal, Microsoft will no longer control cloud gaming rights for Activision’s content, so would not be in a position to limit access to Activision’s key content to its own cloud gaming service or to withhold those games from rivals."
Its press release also reveals that Ubisoft will have the ability to make "Microsoft to port Activision games to operating systems other than Windows and support game emulators when requested." Essentially, it's pleased that Microsoft no longer has an iron grip on Activision Blizzard games outside of the Xbox ecosystem and is closer to supporting the deal because of it. Of course, both Microsoft and Activision Blizzard are pretty happy about this.
"We are encouraged by this positive development in the CMA’s review process," Microsoft president Brad Smith tweeted. "We presented solutions that we believe fully address the CMA’s remaining concerns related to cloud game streaming, and we will continue to work toward earning approval to close prior to the October 18 deadline."
Meanwhile, an Activision Blizzard spokesperson provided Digital Trends with the following statement: "The CMA’s preliminary approval is great news for our future with Microsoft. We’re pleased the CMA has responded positively to the solutions Microsoft has proposed, and we look forward to working with Microsoft toward completing the regulatory review process."
A final decision from the CMA is expected to be made by October 6. As Smith mentioned, Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition is expected to close by October 18.

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