Niantic Labs, the developers behind Pokémon Go, have announced that their follow-up game will be titled Harry Potter: Wizards Unite and based on J.K. Rowling’s famous book series. Like Pokémon Go, Wizards Unite will be a location-based, augmented-reality (AR) mobile game, so get those cellphone batteries ready, nerds!
Niantic will co-develop the game with Warner Bros. Interactive, which has even launched a new division called Portkey Games that’s dedicated to the project. (Har har, Warner Bros.) There are very few details about the content or storyline of the game at this point, but I’m sure we’ve all got a wishlist. Sorting Hat? Quidditch games? Just spellcasting and collecting potions ingredients everywhere? Given how thoroughly Pottermore has taken on the world-expanding potential of a Harry Potter game, I’m curious to see how Wizards Unite plans to set itself apart, and what it plans to offer gamers that both complements and distinguishes itself from Pottermore.
Pokémon Go got its mechanics from the show that inspired it and the console games that came before it, but the Harry Potter books and films don’t provide the same simple blueprint. This gives Niantic a lot more room to get creative with the challenges and environment that it offers users – but it also gives them a lot more potential to mess it up. What would you most like from a Harry Potter AR game? What could make it as addictive as Pokémon Go?
Harry Potter: Wizards United is slated for release in 2018.
(Via Nerdist and TechCrunch; image via Warner Brothers Studios)
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