The boy who lived has found a new medium. Niantic, the company behind the hit mobile game Pokémon Go, has revealed that its follow-up game will take place within the Wizarding World of J.K. Rowling‘s Harry Potter. And like its predecessor, the Harry Potter mobile game will also use augmented reality to integrate muggles from our world with the fantastic beasts and the rest of Rowling’s magical creations.
UPDATE, 12/12 – A few new details about our imminent digital jaunt into the Wizarding World have arisen! Via Coming Soon, we learn today that Niantic’s Harry Potter: Wizards Unite will send players’ original avatars through full academic tenure at Hogwarts. Included in the program are standard wizarding classes, including Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts, as well as extracurriculars like Dueling Club… and we’d have to imagine some occasional Quiddich. The report also states that well-known Hogwarts professors are expected to make appearances in the game, though nobody is named outright.
11/11 –Â Via TechCrunch, Niantic and Warner Bros. Interactive are co-developing Harry Potter: Wizards Unite for a 2018 launch. For the new title, WBI has even started a new division with an appropriately Potter-esque name: Portkey Games. There were previously rumors about Niantic’s Harry Potter title as recently as last year, which were denied at the time. Now, it’s really happening.
Details about the new Harry Potter mobile game are frustratingly sparse at the moment. Presumably Niantic will keep some of the best aspects of Pokémon Go, which encouraged players to explore their cities for hidden surprises, creatures, and power-ups. The Harry Potter universe also has an expansive cast of supporting characters to draw upon, even if Potter himself is not a focal point of the game.
Ideally, we’d love to see this game allow players to be sorted into the various magical houses while learning how to cast spells. Within this universe, even Hogwarts has to have a few online apps by now. But more than anything else, we really want to summon our Patronus and fight a Dementor. Hopefully that’s not too much to ask!
What do you want to see in the Harry Potter AR game? Manage your mischief in the comment section below!
Images: Warner Bros. Pictures
More on Harry Potter!
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- Breaking down the time travel of Harry Potter
