Image: Warner Bros. Games
Your Hogwarts letter got lost in the mail, apparently.
Developer Avalanche Software’s open-world fantasy RPG Hogwarts Legacy has been delayed to 2023 from its original release window in Holiday 2022. The Harry Potter game will now launch on February 10, 2023, mostly due to its development team wanting more time to polish up the game.
Here’s the announcement:
Publisher Warner Bros. Games announced the delay, saying, “The team is excited for you to play, but we need a little more time to deliver the best possible game experience.” The announcement also adds another wrinkle to the game’s launch rollout: the game’s new February launch date only applies to PlayStation, Xbox and PC platforms, but not the Nintendo Switch. This suggests that Switch owners are going to have to wait longer to play the game compared to everyone else, which has sadly become the norm with Switch ports.
To many Harry Potter fans, Hogwarts Legacy is wish fulfillment at its best. You get to go to the wizarding school of Hogwarts with a character of your own creation, get sorted into one of Hogwart’s four houses by the Sorting Hat and experience life as a magic-learning student. You’ll go to classes, explore environments ranging from the Forbidden Forest to Hogsmeade as described in the books, and make many friends along the way.
The game’s story is set in the late 1800s, long before Harry Potter was born. As you learn magic in Hogwarts, you’ll also have to contend with a major goblin rebellion led by Ranrok, a figure allied with a dark wizard named Victor Rookwood. Ranrok hates wizards, and together the duo seek to uncover an ancient magic that somehow has ties to you, the player.
Hogwarts Legacy looks like one of the more exciting entries in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter since the original movie adaptations ended. The Fantastic Beasts film franchise has seen diminishing returns in both critical and financial reception, and its future remains uncertain. Combined with the fact that J.K. Rowling has repeatedly and publicly made transphobic remarks online, being a fan of Harry Potter is a bit more complicated than it used to be. Rowling has no involvement in Hogwarts Legacy’s story however, and the game does look pretty good - read everything we know about it here.
