The Complete Evolution of Harry Potter Video Games [2001-2022]

there have been more than 30 harry potter video game titles across pc handhelds home consoles and mobile devices there have been major partnerships with key companies like lego experimental titles using the xbox kinect and playstation move and of course they are the main line titles that coincided with each new movie release people of the internet retrorecontour here i'm just a dad who loves games and the stories they tell and this is the complete history of the harry potter video games the choices you make now will define the legacy of hogwarts many think of harry potter and the philosopher's stone as being the first hp video game however that title actually belongs to lego creator harry potter the game was developed for pc by superscape and published by lego software in 2001. being a lego game it's no surprise it focused heavily on building and player creation it contained four different worlds including diagon alley king's cross station the hogwarts grounds and hogwarts itself the characters were modeled after lego's harry potter sets at the time which have certainly seen some changes over the years as far as how the game actually played the animation was stiff and a bit wonky at times but it's easy to see how kids who love lego and harry potter would be intrigued by the game when it comes to the actual release date information available online today is surprisingly inconclusive i found dates ranging from march 21st to october 26 2001. all of them do seem to agree however that it was not only the first harry potter video game released but also the first licensed lego video game ever released as well now there had been lego games before but this marked the first time lego worked with a third-party franchise seeing just how much lego's video game business has grown today makes it quite a fascinating footnote to history that it all started with harry potter super i think malfoy is beginning to regret his naughtiness now just once more 2001 was a huge turning point for the harry potter franchise as the first film was released to the world along with a video game [Music] the video game launched on the pc sony playstation game boy color and game boy advance in november of 2001. philosopher's stone is the game many fans think of when remembering the origins of the harry potter series in video games one of the most interesting notes about the first game is just how different the versions were the pc game was developed by no wonder while argonaut games handled the playstation version aside from technical aspects such as resolution and frame rate modern gamers would probably find it bizarre for a single title to play so differently across platforms but not only did these titles play differently they were built completely differently as well the pc version put players in control of harry after his arrival at hogwarts the game used a third person perspective and had players learning new spells by attending classes and solving simple puzzles throughout the castle despite hogwarts being somewhat open for exploration the missions were fairly straightforward and linear spells in the game included flopindo the video game version of the knockback jinx along with alohomora wingardium leviosa lumos and incendio the spells were contextual and while they could be cast at any time by the player they would only react to specific objects in the game most of the spells behaved as you would expect with the exception of lumos which revealed hidden platforms rather than acting as a charm to lighter wizard's wand like we see in the books and movies the playstation version was also third person but the story did not follow the same order as the pc version there were also different gameplay elements and scenes that weren't featured in the pc game sure there were plenty of similarities including the fact that both games managed to include quidditch and wizard cards as collectibles as for the handheld versions even though the game boy color and game boy advance games were both developed by kryptonite games they too played rather differently the game boy color title was an rpg and seemingly inspired by games like pokemon and final fantasy the gba version was a top-down puzzle game instead overall the games received fairly middling review scores although there was a clear nod to the game boy color version being the best at least in the eyes of video game journalists given the popularity of the series as a whole though it's no surprise the game sold well philosopher stone was the top selling pc game in the month of december 2001 in february of 2002 the npd group listed it as the third highest selling pc game of the previous year with more than 800 000 copies sold this was despite the fact that it didn't release until november the game would go on to sell well above 1 million copies for pc the playstation version was even better with absolutely massive sales numbers of more than 8 million copies sold which actually make it the sixth best-selling playstation title of all time i was unable to find sales numbers for the game boy color version but the gba version did quite well selling just shy of 700 000 copies by august of 2006. harry potter and the chamber of secrets released in november of 2002 once again alongside the film and once again with multiple versions no wonder was back for the pc version although this time they would also release for mac as well argonaut games tackled the ps1 version ea uk worked on the ps2 gamecube and xbox versions eurocom developed a version for game boy advance which left kryptonite with just the game boy color version this go-round that's right five different versions of the game and honestly even the gamecube xbox and ps2 versions had a few differences between them as well for starters the gamecube version was the only one to support a special feature that allowed players to access a secret room if they connected to the gameboy advance version using a gamecube gba link cable and despite more technical power in the gamecube and xbox neither of those versions permitted players to roam freely across the grounds and to land anywhere using the free flight mode which was possible on the ps2 version other than that these console versions were very similar and featured a hogwarts castle that provided a little more freedom than the pc game wizard cards also made a return as did bertie bought every flavor beans here they also introduced a lost items bulletin board which was found in the gryffindor common room these items were hidden in various locations throughout the school and along the hogwarts grounds for each item found players were rewarded with a famous witcher wizard card the pc version was a direct sequel to no wonders version of philosopher stone the graphic style and character models were mostly the same although there was a definite improvement to the way the game controlled on mouse and keyboard some spells learned in the first game were retained but players took classes to learn new spells as well the puzzles and overall flow of the game were also improved compared to the first yet it once again played out very differently than the console versions argonaut's version for playstation can be looked at as a direct sequel to the philosopher's stone version of the game that they made for ps1 some areas of hogwarts were expanded upon from the first game or moved slightly although the models and graphics were mostly the same they did introduce some new minigames and other slight gameplay improvements gryptonite once again went with an rpg style for the game boy color version while eurocom made an adventure-style puzzle-driven game for gba critics appeared marginally more pleased with chamber of secrets when compared to philosopher stone but not by much most publications scored the gamecube and xbox version slightly higher than the ps2 version but this wasn't true across the board it's also important to keep in mind there weren't nearly as many game reviews posted then as there are today to put it into perspective metacritic only has 8 scores for the pc version and only 16 for the ps2 version compare that to a recently released modern third party title like death loop for example and you'll see that the ps5 version has more than 100 critical reviews at the time of this recording sales for chamber of secrets were incredibly strong yet again in fact when all of the versions are combined the news and observer reports more than 9 million copies were sold lego would also release lego creator harry potter in the chamber of secrets in 2002 although a sequel to the first lego creator harry potter game this one wasn't developed by superscape cube software worked on the project and it was published by ea and lego interactive the sequel built upon the first game by including more models worlds and minifigures with no harry potter films scheduled for release in 2003 that presented a unique opportunity for wb and ea that holiday season rather than releasing a title based on a book for a not yet released movie they instead opted to release a spin-off game in the form of harry potter quidditch world cup [Music] quidditch world cup was a deep dive into a fan favorite pastime of the wizarding world even though there weren't any new movies that year the harry potter and the goblet of fire book released just a few years prior in the year 2000 of course one of the standout scenes and world building moments of this installment in the series was harry attending the quidditch world cup the game started out simple enough with players choosing one of the four hogwarts house teams and learning through a series of exhibition matches challenges and ultimately playing in the hogwarts quidditch cup against the other house teams witch world cup did a fantastic job with the small details like including actual names of players and students fans would recognize from the books after winning the hogwarts cup players unlocked the world cup and that's where things really got interesting england the united states japan germany france australia the nordic team spain and bulgaria were all available although bulgaria had to be unlocked and an interesting design choice both the hogwarts cup and the world cup are actually determined by points and not wins this meant that the team with the highest point total after all games were played is actually the team that would be crowned champion which may not necessarily be the team with the most wins even though the gameplay was a radical departure from previous harry potter video games critical reception was mostly the same with reviews averaging around 70 the pc gamecube xbox and ps2 versions were developed by ea uk however there was also a gba version developed by magic pockets that unsurprisingly played quite a bit differently this version didn't review nearly as well though as the full-fledged console versions with the incredible sales numbers of the original release of philosopher stone it's no surprise wb attempted to capitalize on the success for a new generation of systems in december 2003 developer warthog games would release yet another version of philosopher stone but this time for sony's playstation 2 nintendo's gamecube and microsoft's xbox this version reused many of the assets from 2002's console version of harry potter and the chamber of secrets and the gameplay is similar yet again though it proved to be quite a different experience from the pc and ps1 versions that came before this remake had a story that followed the film much more closely but reviewed slightly lower than the philosopher's stone versions that preceded it in the summer of 2004 it was back to a traditional release with harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban hitting theaters and yet another movie tie-in game to release alongside it no wonder made the pc version kryptonite the game boy advance version and ea uk for the gamecube ps2 and xbox versions all versions were natural progressions based on the games that came before however they all had a fairly big shift by featuring the trio of harry ron and hermione more prominently than in previous games in fact all three were playable characters for the first time and the console versions even let you switch between the three at will for most sections of the game there are spells that are unique to certain members of the trio which come into play when solving puzzles or trying to progress through certain levels there are also some bizarre design decisions for the console version such as the fact that harry is the only character who can jump across chasms like the chamber of secrets console game before it there were also moments where players needed to summon hedwig for assistance both versions also have sequences where the player can ride buckbeak the hippogriff the pc version remained more focused on puzzles whereas the console versions continue to be more of a third person action-adventure game with puzzle elements sprinkled throughout bertie bought beans returned and were once again used to buy items from fred and george wizard cards chocolate frogs cauldron cakes dung bombs and several other items returned from previous games as well as for the gba version it was once again a traditional role-playing game it did differ from the gba games before it by opting for turn-based combat rather than the real-time combat of the previous gba games although the game boy color games before it did feature turn-based battles critical reviews of both versions once again hovered in that 70 range with the ps2 version scoring the best the pc version came in at 67 despite the completely different gameplay the gba version was also met with middling review scores in the 70 range commercially the games were another huge success even selling 316 000 copies in the launch month alone 2004 would also see the release of the first ever harry potter mobile game which was titled harry potter find scabbers the gameplay was rather simple as players would search for scabbers as he makes his way through an assortment of different mazes unfortunately this game was not well received ign's review of the game said quote harry potter finds scabbers isn't much fun to begin with but when you consider the richness of the source material the game becomes disheartening and disappointing close quote despite the poor first attempt it certainly wouldn't be the last harry potter mobile game harry potter and the goblet of fire released in 2005 and saw quite a few changes compared to the previous core games in the series for starters no wonder was no longer in the picture and did not develop a pc version instead the pc version was developed by ea uk and it was largely the same as the ps2 gamecube and xbox versions the team-based mechanic of prisoner of azkaban was carried over here and expanded upon the graphics started to shift even more to make the characters look like their movie counterparts perhaps the most disappointing change with goblet of fire is how it completely did away with the more free roaming gameplay found in the first three games instead it was more action focused and broken up into different levels as players competed in the triwizard tournament in addition to a handful of other scenes found in the books and movies and possibly as a result of these changes players no longer controlled the game's camera in fact the pc version was controlled entirely by the keyboard with no mouse input at all on the more positive side goblet of fire brought multiplayer co-op support to the series for the first time this meant you could have friends take on the role of ron and hermione together the trio could combine spells for more power when playing alone most levels gave players the option to pick one of the three main characters with the exception being levels that involved one of the triwizard tasks magic pockets developed the game for the game boy advance and nintendo ds while ea fusion uk handled the psp version the gba and ds versions were fairly similar but neither were an rpg as had been the custom for at least one of the handheld versions in the past the psp version was also its own thing however it tried to be closer to the home console versions than its nintendo handheld counterparts even with these changes critical reception for a goblet of fire was mostly the same as previous games in the mainline series hovering around an average of 68 to 70 percent most longtime fans of the series agree though that goblet of fire was a clear drop off from the first games that came before it harry potter and the order of the phoenix restored the open world exploration from the original three games and made some of the best attempts to please fans of the series even going as far to involve a fan council to assist during the development process as part of the game's open world nature players could earn discovery points as they made their way through hogwarts and use spells to interact with objects environmental spells included accio dipulso wingardium leviosa incendio rapero and reducto wizard duels also made a return with the finale even putting players in the shoes of albus dumbledore for his epic duel against lord voldemort and the department of mysteries for much of the game however players only control harry which was a departure from the previous two entries that had emphasized teamwork of the main trio and speaking of dumbledore dumbledore's army is also featured prominently throughout the game combat spells include stupefy expelliarmus protego rictum simpra levocorpus petrovicus totalis and expecto patronum author jk rowling also played a more prominent role in the development even suggesting different characters for certain missions based on their personality within the wizarding world she also helped with rules for the various wizarding world mini-games that appeared like gobstones and exploding snap with the advancements in video game technology they were even able to scan faces of certain characters from the movie cast like rupert grint and ivana lynch the layout and appearance of hogwarts was also based on the movie version of the castle ea uk developed the game for pc mac ps2 ps3 xbox and the nintendo wii which proved to be the most popular version thanks in large part to the wii remote wand controls it also didn't hurt that the nintendo wii was an insanely big seller while the overall feel and lore of the game proved to be close to the source material maybe more so than any harry potter game before it the gameplay itself left much to be desired the pc ps3 and 360 versions certainly had the best graphics but the wii version was the most well received among critics despite the improvements in fan involvement however many reviewers felt the gameplay was too easy and repetitive which resulted in most scores falling below 70 percent pretty much across all platforms the ds and gba versions which were developed by visual impact scored poorly as well as did the psp version which was developed by rebellion developments and for the first time in the series a mobile version was released by ea mobile somewhat surprisingly these java games actually looked incredible for their time with particularly strong lighting effects they also featured wizard tools flights with hedwig and plenty of stealth sequences throughout hogwarts all things considered many felt this to be an incredibly solid attempt at making a mobile game worthy of the harry potter name and that wasn't the only mobile harry potter game released in 2007 ea mobile also released harry potter mastering magic for mobile phones mobile games were certainly still in their infancy in 2007 which is probably why mastering magic was simply a collection of mini games eight to be exact that being said the games themselves weren't half bad and featured classes from the wizarding world such as divination care of magical creatures and herbology unfortunately the game suffered from the same as many games in the series by being too repetitive and too easy once the lessons were completed players would take their ordinary wizarding level exam which did help to boost the challenge somewhat harry potter and the half blood prince released in 2009 and fans were hopeful the series would continue moving in a positive direction after the changes that were made for order of the phoenix free roaming hogwarts quidditch and wizard duels all made a return however many found the gameplay repetitive yet again you would primarily control harry although there are segments featuring ron and jenny as playable characters as well many of the spells from the previous game returned but no new ones were added the wii version utilized the wii remote once again for spell casting and also added we remote functionality to brewing potions given the storyline of half blood prince it only made sense for potions to be featured more prominently and that's certainly the case across all versions of the game there are numerous potion brewing segments including one with felix felicis the production value continued to increase as characters looked more like their movie counterparts than ever before thanks to advancements of console hardware at the time many of the movie voice actors also returned including rupert grint as ron bonnie wright as jenny tom felton as draco and plenty of others unfortunately the animations were rough and at times bad enough to actually pull you out of the experience and unfortunately the entire game could be completed in roughly three and a half hours overall half blood prince didn't innovate enough to see much critical success as most reviewers scored it slightly lower than its predecessors the nintendo ds version used stylus controls and wasn't nearly as well received by reviewers earning a 4.4 out of 10 from ign the psp version was scored similar to the ds version the mobile game once again proved to be a pleasant surprise like order of the phoenix before it the visual presentation was top notch with detailed character sprites and high quality animation most of the gameplay involved basic fetch quests where characters needed help finding items within hogwarts then players were tasked with moving those items from one place to another wizard duels helped to break up the fetch quests but while potions and quidditch were featured so prominently in the console version they don't appear at all in the mobile version harry potter spells was another attempt at capitalizing on the rapidly growing mobile games market and this one was all about transforming your ios device into a wand after choosing a wand and getting sorted which was actually random surprisingly you would start to learn the game's 14 different spells spells were cast through a series of different hand gestures once all 14 were mastered players could move on to wizard duels either against a computer-controlled player or a friend with another ios device and a copy of the game in 2010 it's hard to believe that nearly a decade had passed since the chamber of secrets lego creator game but wb and lego partnered up once again for lego harry potter years one through four and this proved to be one of the standout games of the series and still beloved by fans today the lego formula for video games was already well established by 2010 and that formula lent itself perfectly to the harry potter franchise the games focus on collecting exploring solving puzzles and overall sense of humor proved to be a huge hit with fans spell casting was also made very simple through the use of a spell wheel given that the game covers the first four years of harry's time at hogwarts it's no surprise that it's packed with content and unlockables which include 167 characters this certainly helped lego harry potter to avoid the two short complaints that had been made about previous games in the series locations included hogsmeade diagon alley and of course hogwarts while the game does feature a number of different levels it also keeps things open for exploration through free play the entirety of the game can be played alongside a friend thanks to the game's split screen mode this alters the story somewhat as every mission is playable with a friend the game also featured very clever uses apologies potion and even dark magic which was required for solving some of the puzzles lego creator harry potter years 1 through 4 appeared on a staggering number of platforms including android ios nintendo ds and psp which were developed by tt fusion travelers tails made the primary version of the game for pc mac nintendo wii ps3 and the xbox 360. double 11 would later port the game to ps4 xbox one and the nintendo switch the console version was overwhelmingly one of the best reviewed harry potter games of the entire franchise with a metacritic score of 80. deathly hallows part 1 also released in 2010 and it too was a standout game in the series but for all the wrong reasons it did release alongside the movie and in an effort to appeal to its aging core audience ea completely altered the style of its flagship harry potter movie tie-in game deathly hallows part 1 changed the harry potter formula from an action adventure with a focus on exploration and puzzle solving into a third person shooter the game heavily relied on a cover system clearly inspired by the likes of shooter titles like cures of war the game even emphasized landing headshots and upgrading to stronger spells there was no free roaming no quidditch and sadly no hogwarts although the latter is a result of the book and movie storyline which took the trio out of their usual setting as the fight against voldemort entered its final chapter instead players fight numerous death eaters snatchers giant spiders dragons doxies whomping willows and dementors somewhat hilariously the game uses the elixir of life as a healing item which fans know was actually the potion nicholas flamel created with the sorcerer's stone to extend his life the decision to go more action-oriented with deathly hallows was certainly understandable however its execution failed due to a messy narrative style and the imprecise gameplay mechanics side missions often served no purpose other than to extend the gameplay length and they completely broke up the storyline that players actually wanted to know about there were stealth sections along the way which tried to break up the action but unfortunately both fans and critics alike are nearly unanimous in their disdain for deathly hallows part 1 and part 2 for that matter the review scores across the board were the lowest of the series with a metacritic score of 37 out of 100 for the pc version the nintendo ds version was once again completely different and focused primarily on puzzle game play as a result it did see slightly more favorable review scores the mobile version of the game proved to be another quality title once again complete with outstanding visuals and a strategic combat system pocketgamer gave it a silver award and noted quote the brilliant atmosphere challenging combat and superb storytelling are a magical recipe that any potions master would be proud of close quote and although it wasn't a traditional video game per se screenlife games also published a mobile version of the popular scenic game for ios in 2010. the game featured hd clips from the first six movies and included a number of mini games to test players memory in 2011 ea released what should have been an epic conclusion to the series that built upon all the titles that came before to their credit ea did hear the complaints on part one and certainly attempted to remedy that with part two but unfortunately the result was another disappointing entry in the harry potter series on the positive side ea attempted to tell the story in a linear fashion that followed the movie more closely than part one by not including those seemingly random unnecessary side missions and went back to a spell casting system that mapped spells to the face buttons they also added sequences with more playable characters in an attempt to capture the collective efforts of wizards fighting on harry's side throughout the series and in the battle of hogwarts playable characters included harry ron hermione ginny neville and even sheamus professor mcgonagall and molly weasley unfortunately the overall gameplay and progression once again suffered with boring level designs and wave after wave of death eaters to fight the game also proved to be another short experience that could be beaten in around 3 hours all in all it was a disappointing conclusion even by the mediocre standards of the movie tie-in games that came before it this time around even the mobile version was somewhat of a disappointment gameloft handled development rather than ea mobile and the game suffered as a result of this change the graphics and animations were praised yet again but the gameplay fell flat pocketgamer said quote but when it comes to play itself and the beguiling plot that rests heavy upon it harry potter and the deathly hallows part 2 is neither engaging enough to mop up those with a casual interest or active enough to serve those first in the queue at the flicks close quote fortunately for harry potter fans deathly hallows part 2 wasn't the only potter video game to release in 2011. traveler's tales was back with the sequel to its first lego harry potter game lego harry potter years five through seven covered the events from order of the phoenix all the way to the series conclusion in deathly hallows the game once again delivered the classic lego formula with two-player co-op humor fun yet simple mechanics and a plethora of extras to unlock although some scenes are changed from the books and movies often for comedic effect the lego games did a great job at including the most iconic moments throughout harry's final years at hogwarts including the battle at the department of mysteries dumbledore and harry's fight against and fury in the cave and of course harry's final confrontation with voldemort himself like years one through four lego harry potter years five through seven remains one of the best-reviewed potter games to date with aggregate scores in the high 70s to low 80s depending on the platform the ds and psp versions were both scaled back versions of the console games as a result they didn't review as well but most still found them to be enjoyable following the release of deathly hallows part 2 and lego harry potter years 5 through 7 in 2011 the franchise entered a new era for the series as no other books or movies were on the horizon in 2012 wb released what can best be described as experimental titles heavy on gimmicks with harry potter for the microsoft connect wonder book book of spells for the playstation 3 and then wonder book book of potions also for ps3 harry potter connect was an exclusive title for the xbox 360 and unsurprisingly required the kinect accessory spells were performed with physical gestures and verbal incantations this game was clearly geared toward a younger audience considering its actively tiring controls and short overall length book of spells seemed to fare a little bit better with critics the title actually came about as a result of a partnership between jk rowling's pottermore website and sony computer entertainment the game was developed by sony's london studio and even gave users the option to link the game to their pottermore accounts which would then in turn match the player's wand and hogwarts house from their pottermore account as far as the actual gameplay book of spells was an augmented reality experience that was exclusive to playstation and took advantage of the itoy and playstation move accessories like the wii remote before it move controller was a natural fit to simulate one motions through augmented reality with the itoy the move controller itself appears as a wand on the tv screen the title book of spells is actually inspired by the textbook written by miranda goshawk in the series in what is seemingly a common theme for many of the harry potter games the overall experience ended up being rather short and not worth the price of a full-fledged release critics did praise the actual mechanics of the game and its clever use of the playstation move controller wonder book book of potions released in 2013 as a follow-up and featured nearly identical gameplay but with more of a focus on brewing potions rather than casting spells jk rowling created a completely new character zigment budge who guided players in their potion making throughout the game i am sigmund budge i discovered the properties of hundreds of secret plants and creatures budge attended hogwarts at some point between the years of 1501 and 1594 but his house is unknown in the forward of book of potions budge claims to have invented many of the wizarding world's most powerful potions as far as critical reception book of potions went by largely unnoticed to reviewers it actually only received one critical review score on metacritic the daily telegraph's andy robertson published one of the few reviews for the game and gave it an overall positive review after book of potions in 2013 the series went quiet for a long stretch even though there weren't any new books or movies it's somewhat surprising to see that the series lay dormant for so long in 2016 though that changed as wb released a brand new film set in the wizarding world fantastic beasts and where to find them a prequel to the events of harry potter somewhat surprisingly wb did not create a major video game for the release of fantastic beasts they did however release a new mobile game for android and ios fantastic beasts cases from the wizarding world wb games san francisco partnered with developer mediatonic to create a single-player hidden object style game where players controlled a member of the beast division in the department for regulation and control of magical creatures the game took players to familiar locations such as hogsmeade the leaky cauldron and diagon alley there were 14 different cases for players to solve which always involved uncovering a hidden magical beast causing some sort of unexplained happenings around it players would find hidden objects cast spells brew potions and identify beasts to crack the case unfortunately the game was officially shut down in january of 2020. from 2018 through 2021 wb only released a handful of mobile titles for the harry potter franchise including harry potter hogwarts mystery in 2018 harry potter wizards unite in 2019 harry potter puzzles and spells in 2020 and harry potter magic awakened in 2021 hogwarts mystery is a single-player narrative-based role-playing game developed by jam city under licensing from portkey games it takes place after harry potter's birth but before his enrollment at hogwarts with this timeline many characters fans know from the series such as dumbledore mcgonagall and snape make an appearance here players will also meet and work alongside bill weasley who's a student at hogwarts at the same time as the player all of the elements you'd expect are here such as learning spells brewing potions and playing quidditch the game even covers a full seven years at hogwarts and the choices you make along the way impact certain story elements and your relationship with other characters unfortunately while the game is free it's riddled with micro transactions and incredibly frustrating pay to win mechanics in fact the prices were so egregious that fan backlash led to a price cut on many of these microtransactions both reviewers and fans alike have criticized the pay structure of the game and many specifically noted an early scene that immediately depletes your energy meter and then requires you to either wait half an hour for the energy to replenish or pay real world money to instantly refill the energy meter even with these criticisms the game grossed 55 million in revenue by august 2018 and more than 100 million by march of 2019. at the time of this recording hogwarts mystery is still being supported with new updates harry potter wizards unite is a mobile title developed and published by niantic under licensing from portkey games and yes it's the very same niantic who created the incredibly popular pokemon go like pokemon go the gameplay is based around augmented reality and location-based gameplay players needed to physically visit real world locations and use their mobile device to cast spells discover artifacts and meet up with familiar characters and fantastic beasts from the wizarding world of harry potter similar to most potter games before it you'll choose your wand and house at the start of the game but in this one you'll also need to pick a profession you can be a professor auror or magic zoologist by may of 2021 the title had been downloaded 20 million times and had a total revenue of 37 million unfortunately the game fell short of expectations and in november of 2021 they announced plans to remove the game from all app stores in december and then fully shut down the game in january of 2022. harry potter puzzles and spells is yet another harry potter mobile game although this one was developed by the mobile gaming giant zynga and published by port g games in september of 2020 it was released on android ios kindle and facebook at its core puzzles and spells is a match 3 puzzle game that includes familiar wizarding world locations like diagon alley and hogwarts among others it puts a spin on the classic match 3 formula by having various harry potter spells and items that you can earn along the way to help you clear the puzzles the game is free to play but does feature some microtransactions at the time of this video recording it has more than 134 000 ratings on ios with an impressive 4.8 out of 5 average score it's also still being actively supported by zynga with frequent updates and a story that spans across multiple books harry potter magic awakened is a wizarding world mobile game that just recently had its official launch but only in select territories it's an rpg card game for pc android and ios and it's set 10 years after harry potter's victory over voldemort in the battle of hogwarts it was first announced back in october of 2019 and is being developed by netease and published by wb under the portkey games label with this game taking place so close to the original series there are actually quite a few familiar faces that players will interact with throughout the game the main character's journey starts similar to harry's when the half rubius hagrid shows up to deliver a letter of acceptance to a young muggleborn hagrid teaches them about the wizarding world and joins them on their first trip to diagon alley the story really kicks off at the sorting ceremony when a fellow first-year ivy warrington goes missing players will get to choose their hogwarts house attend classes explore the castle and even join the dueling club most of the action and spell casting will be centered on the game's card based combat system the game has impressed so far but a large portion of the harry potter fan base is still awaiting its release in more territories and so that brings us to the modern day with one harry potter game looming on the horizon and set to release in 2022. that's right it's hogwarts legacy that common bond we share is the legacy of hogwarts with the incredible success of the franchise over the years it shouldn't come as a shock to anyone that even more harry potter games are in development to this day at the time of this video recording hogwarts legacy is in development at avalanche software with plans to publish under the portkey games label players will create their own witch or wizard and step into a late 1800s wizarding world long before harry defeats voldemort at the battle of hogwarts the game is an open world action rpg and given the incredible success of the genre in recent years fans are hopeful this could finally be the harry potter game to buck the trend of being merely acceptable and hopefully moving up to exceeding expectations or possibly even outstanding even with the late 1800s timing players will travel to familiar locations such as the forbidden forest and hogsmeade village magical creatures will feature prominently and a number of them have already been confirmed including centaurs goblins grab horns moon calves spiders trolls and hippogriffs despite the lengthy history of video games set in the wizarding world long time fans of the series are still holding out hope for a game that can fully capture the magic of the rich and vibrant world fans fell in love with so many years ago today many players look back on the video game titles fondly while i can't speak for everyone at least for me there's certainly the question of what might have been what might have been without rush development cycles to hit a movie release date what might have been had developers been able to maintain more consistency especially later in the series it's safe to say that harry potter video games are here to stay but it remains to be seen if any will be able to fully capture the sense of wonder exploration and magic that so many fans feel is possible for video games set in the wizarding world even with all the what-ifs the feeling of nostalgia is strong with many titles from the series and i certainly have fond memories from them myself in fact i've actually been playing through many of the old harry potter games here on my channel you can check out my let's plays on the right side of your screen or if you're looking for more information about future harry potter games like hogwarts legacy then check out the video on the left side of your screen thank you for coming along this journey with me as always thank you all so much for watching i'll talk to you again soon

Channel: RetroRaconteur

Views: 697,463

Keywords: harry potter video games, history of harry potter games, old harry potter games, hogwarts legacy news, hogwrats legacy, harry potter legacy, harry potter rpg, evolution of harry potter video games, harry potter video games over the years, harry potter gameplay

Id: hXbDPODP4zo

Length: 39min 17sec (2357 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 03 2022