Mobile AR Game Harry Potter: Wizards Unite Officially Launches On June 21st
The moment Harry Potter fans have been waiting for has finally arrived. Ready your wands… errr phones as Niantic gears up for the official US and UK launch of their new mobile augmented reality game Harry Potter: Wizards Unite on Friday, June 21st. As new recruits of the Statute of Secrecy Task Force, it’s your job to keep the secrets of the wizarding world safely away from Muggle eyes.
“Harry Potter: Wizards Unite combines content and characters you know and love from both the original Harry Potter series and the Fantastic Beasts films in a unique Wizarding World experience. It’s up to you to ready your wand, prepare your potions, brush up your spells and help prevent The Calamity from exposing the secrets of the wizarding world.”
Niantic is best known for their widely-popular and record-breaking mobile augmented reality game Pokemon Go. A game that started a global phenomenon when it launched back in 2016. Niantic CEO John Hanke hopes to surpass Pokemon Go’s achievements with HPWU. With Harry Potter being one of the biggest franchises in the world, the upcoming game should have no problems appealing to a bigger and wider playerbase.
“Harry Potter's a bigger franchise in terms of global awareness and fanbase than Pokémon was, so there's huge potential there,” says Hanke in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz. “It's one of the only big franchises that has more female than male fans. When you look at Star Wars or Avengers or IP like that, they tend to skew male. Harry Potter is the only one that really pulls against that.
“We want these things to appeal broadly, and I think that's the key to unlocking the social opportunity -- to have a good mix of people. You want male and female, and also diversity in age. Potter has that cross-gender appeal, and then you've got kids and parents. You've got kids who grew up with it -- my daughter's in college now, and she was in the heart of it when she was eight or nine years old.”
The launch trailer alone has me all giddy with excitement. Check it out below. Accio phone!
