Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is a brand new Augmented Reality game from Niantic, the developer of the successful Pokémon GO. Here is everything that has been revealed about the game so far.
Earlier this month, Niantic’s Marketing Vice President Bill Kildav participated in an “Ask Me Anything” thread on Reddit. During this, he mostly spoke of his work with Google. However, a Reddit user named xCloudChaserx managed to get a bit of information about Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. This user asked about the status of the game, to which Kildav replied: “It’s coming soon….."
Moreover, in a blog post, Niantic also claims that it is working hard on the game. It is likely that we will hear more about this very soon.
An Overview
Harry Potter: Wizards Unite takes the idea of Pokémon Go and implements it into the magical world of Harry Potter. Players will explore their real, physical world in search of magical creatures and mysterious artifacts in the game. Of course, they will also have the chance to learn multiple spells and interact with several iconic characters from the books. Naturally, many fans are excited about this.
Niantic also says that Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is also influenced by Ingress, another of its games.
Release Date
There have been multiple sources of information regarding the release date of the game. However, as of now, nothing has been officially announced.
Earlier in 2018, John Hanke, boss of Niantic, said that Harry Potter: Wizards Unite would launch in the second half of this year. This claim was later backed up by Niantic’s Head of Product Marketing Anne Beuttenmüller.
However, Eurogamer reports that they had an interview with John Hanke last July, in which he suggested that the game could potentially be delayed until 2019. According to Hanke, the developers want to release the game when it is ready, and not just rush it to meet the expected release date. He did not specify anything, so “when it is ready” could be this year, or it could be the next.
Features
Right now there has not been a lot of information about the game, but Niantic says that one if its main goals would be to “discover the magic of the series”. We also know that the game will use Augmented Reality, similar to Pokémon Go. So, we could speculate that the game will have us go out in the real world and find magical creatures.
Additionally, the game developer says that Harry Potter: Wizards Unite will feature the appearance of several beloved characters. These could range from professors at Hogwarts to members of the Order of the Phoenix, and of course, the magical trio of Harry, Hermione, and Ron.
According to an article on Pottermore, a popular website about everything related to Harry Potter, players will also be able to learn to cast spells, find various artifacts, and build up their own wizarding career.