Over at Press Start Shannon Grixti has the news: a Reddit user posted footage that they claim comes from an open-world Harry Potter game, supposedly captured from a focus group. About a minute and twenty seconds of video was uploaded to YouTube, and although that was quickly pulled from the site, you can still view it here. That sure does look like some kind of Harry Potter business, doesn’t it? What with the wands and the spells and the quaint British village charged with just a hint of magic in the air, and such.
There’s no firm info whatsoever on what this game is, or who’s making it, or when it might ever be released (if ever). Heck, it could be some kind of a hoax, although the footage does look legit. Jason Schreier of Kotaku speculates that Avalanche Software could be the studio behind this video and whatever in-progress game it might be pulled from. Warner Bros saved the Utah-based developers from oblivion after Disney shut them down in 2016 (they were the main crew behind Disney Infinity, whose absence from my life I still have yet to fully fill), and since Potter is a WB joint it would make sense. And, as Schreier also points out, Avalanche did have a job listing last year for a writer familiar with British culture and grammar.
It’ll probably be a while before we learn the full story behind whatever this clip comes from, barring some kind of magic, or at least an official announcement or more verifiable leak. Whether it’s legitimate or not, Potter fans can rest assured that there will be more Potter games somewhere at some point in the future; that kind of property doesn’t languish long in the IP-driven entertainment world we live in.