Wandering around in a world of Harry Potter
Niantic and Warner Bros. are joining forces to develop a new augmented reality Harry Potter game. The two companies will unite under the Portkey Games label and the game itself will be based on state-of-the-art AR mobile technology that Niantic is renowned for. Niantic’s first game, Ingress, laid the groundwork for the worldwide phenomenon that was Pokémon GO so if anyone should take reigns of the new Harry Potter AR game it’s Niantic.
Harry Potter: Wizards Unite will allow players to become part of the Harry Potter universe exploring real-world locations for adventures, learning of spells and encountering legendary beasts. The fully licensed game will also include the iconic characters we’ve all grown to love, or hate, from the books and films meaning this isn’t some half-baked Harry Potter title.
The Portkey Games studio is a new partnership forged between Niantic and Warner Bros. and their sole focus is to bring the work of J.K. Rowling to life. This is the first step in that vision and although not a massive amount of the game has been revealed the aim is to bring the wizarding world of Harry Potter to life through the medium of AR.
“With this game, we are allowing the passionate, worldwide fan base to experience J.K. Rowling’s deeply powerful and imaginative universe in a new, truly immersive way,” said David Haddad, President, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. “It is wonderful to have Niantic’s remarkable augmented reality expertise as we develop this incredibly rich wizarding world for players to explore in their everyday lives.”
It certainly sounds intriguing and incredibly ambitious and based on this statement one would hope that Harry Potter: Wizards Unite won’t merely be a Pokémon GO clone in a Harry Potter skin. We’ll find out more about the game in 2018.
