The legacy of the Harry Potter multimedia franchise continues to this day, spanning across the original septet of books from author J.K. Rowling, a canonical theatrical sequel which plays across the world to this day, the eight iconic movies, and (once you count all the different console versions over the years) a couple of dozen different video game adaptations. Today, we focus on the latter. Like many film to video game adaptations in the past, none of them were triple-AAA experiences, although quite a few of them had the charm and I recall spending dozens of hours playing them in my youth.
Now in 2022, we are finally set to receive what could be one of the rare AAA video games based on a broad-multimedia franchise, with Hogwarts Legacy from Avalanche Software and WB Games. Today during a dedicated PlayStation State of Play showcase livestream, fans were treated to 13 minutes of gameplay footage from Hogwarts Legacy, showcasing “the magical journey players will be taken on during their visit to Hogwarts including being placed into their house with the sorting hat, gameplay mechanics, and the unique characters and locations they will see throughout the experience”. In addition, there was commentary provided by the game’s creative team, which discusses their experiences developing the game, drawing inspiration from other formats, and the creative process behind things unseen in the franchise to date.
A full release date for Hogwarts Legacy was not announced during the live stream, outside of a confirmation that players can expect to have the game in their consoles later this year. While Sony Interactive Entertainment lent a whole dedicated State of Play livestream to Hogwarts Legacy, something that is really only done for major first-party and console exclusive titles, it still remains a multiplatform game. It would not surprise me to see PlayStation Exclusive content made available to players on the PS4 and PS5, but nothing has been confirmed to date.
Hogwarts Legacy will be available on the Windows PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.
