In a year particularly rich in video game releases, the Harry Potter game stood out.
The year 2023 was marked by the arrival of many highly anticipated games. From Diablo IV to the sequel to Alan Wake to the new Zelda, there was something for everyone. However, one of them was able to appeal to a wider audience than the others: Hogwarts Legacy.
A complete success
JK Rowling's magical world has always held great fascination. The Harry Potter saga has spawned numerous video game adaptations since the first film was released in 2001, but they have struggled to reconcile gamers and less attentive fans of the British author's work. Many players lamented the glaring lack of challenge and lack of true immersion in the world of the original novels.
Sonically, John Williams' original music seemed to be replaced by the young wizard's annoying screams. Most people who played Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone as children are still haunted by the repeated utterance of the spell “Flipendo.”
Many of them were hoping for the arrival of a providential game that would be closer to the Star Wars adaptations than to the other video game derivatives that Hollywood had accustomed us to. From the beginning of the 1990s, the publisher Lucasarts dared to no longer simply adapt George Lucas' films, but to offer original stories set in the same universe and thus explore it in an immersive way. 22 years after the release of the first Harry Potter video game, fans of JK Rowling's works finally got what they wanted with Hogwarts Legacy.
Back to Hogwarts?
The latter is set in the Victorian era and offers players the opportunity to visit the wizarding school more than a century before the birth of the famous Harry Potter. The idea of having your own adventure won over fans, who bought around 22 million copies of the Warner Bros. game. Games, making it the bestseller of 2023 worldwide, ahead of Call of Duty and EA Sports FC 24.
Although a sequel hasn't been officially announced yet, it wouldn't be surprising if one was in the works. But the big absentee from Hogwarts Legacy remains Quidditch, which will soon be entitled to a video game entirely dedicated to the theme. Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions isn't out of date yet, but everything points to it being the next release in the Wizarding World.
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