Harry Potter: Wizards Retire

 Hate to say I told you so...

I've finally done it, ladies and gentlemen, I've kept this blog going for so long that I've totally outlived a game from inception to death. And, to sweeten the pot, I went full Nostradamus and even predicted that this game would do poorly, and or, crash and burn without catching even a sliver of the fame that Niantic expected for the title. But then who am I to judge? I'm just some silly little Internet guy with manic depressive episodes, suicidal proclivities and a computer so horribly outdated I can barely run the early access for Baldur's Gate 3. Truly I am at the bottom of the rung of sources anyone would go to in order to spy the good word about where the winds of the market might trend. Except, hah! I did it this time, and let it be known to all that Harry Potter Wizards Unite proved itself a pale embarrassment and is due for the chopping block on January 2022. Okay, now I'm done gloating I can be sad, because Harry Potter Wizards Unite is being shut down.

Yes, the impermanence of online video games and the general gaming market has reared it's shaggy, lacksidasical mane in order to remind us once more that everything we know will one day cease to be. And that day creeps ever closer with profit driven enterprises in charge of keeping the plug going. (Thanks, Sony.) I've tasted this bitter spring in a very personal sense with the failure of Elder Scrolls Legends still nudging at my ankles just that little bit, and so I do feel bad for those that genuinely played and loved this title. (I know you're out there, you just weren't enough it seems.) Because, you see, it's not about finding that niche little gem that few others have heard about with games like this, but being abreast of the next big thing and personally supporting it's development whilst hoping thousands of others are doing the same or more than you, otherwise you may one day end up with no game. What a really crappy burden to lay upon the audience, but thus is what we sign up to with this live-service world.

And I suppose I even feel just that little bit bad for Niantic, although that's more so directed towards anyone who might be on the line for losing their job because of this direction change, not for the millionaire CEO's who made a bad bet and lost big on it. They truly believed that in Harry Potter they'd discovered the next evergreen franchise to eclipse Pokémon, even going to far as to gloat about the size of the Harry Potter brand in relation to Pokémon. At the time I addressed this particular point and poured some heavy doubt on the whole assertion, how could it be that Harry Potter is more popular than Pokémon, I mean it's big but I can't think of a single figure that backs those words up. Of course, I overruled myself under the idea that this is a big company and they must have more idea about this like this than I do. (We can see what all that experience was worth, huh.) But now I am left with my own speculation.

What exactly was it about Harry Potter that didn't translate other to the world of Go-like games? The game tried to bring that style of alternate reality gameplay and grabbed tight onto the iconic imagery of the Harry Potter novels, it even tied itself in with the main lore of the series, setting itself after the graduation of the three protagonists and following the works of the Ministry of Magic that they helped shape. (Totally ignoring the fact that the app didn't come up with anything original beyond that premise and spent the whole time theming events around characters and events from the book. I'm sure there's an in-game explanation, I just don't care) There's even an ongoing movie franchise that is expanding upon the world of Harry Potter right now, and which has hit several development bumps which has delayed it into obscurity, but this still should be a ripe time for expanded universe Harry Potter stuff.

First of all I'd like to tackle the size of the Harry Potter audience, because Niantic were in no way wrong in their assertions that this series is vast. J.K.Rowling is the most successful modern writer in her field and the movies form such core staples of many people's childhoods that now millennial parents are introducing their own children to them. (I'm sure someone out there finds that sweet) But here's the thing, that audience, is the wrong audience for gaming. I mean sure, there's going to be some crossover between people who play games and those that like Harry Potter, I'm a member of that particular sample size, but they aren't intrinsically linked. At it's heart Pokemon is a game series and maintains that entertainment angle to every medium it touches, therefore when making an accessible mobile game it makes sense to dream big about snatching up as much of the active Pokemon fanbase as possible. With Harry Potter that just doesn't cleanly translate, those people might show up for another book, would definitely show up to a movie, (that's the only reason why Fantastic Beasts 1 did well enough to warrant a sequel despite being duller than igneous rocks) but a mobile game? Why assume the majority of Harry Potter fans are on board with that? From the beginning Niantic's assumptions were beyond overly optimistic.

Then there's the big one, and this is a common story you see across this industry and many other but that doesn't mean I have to understand or like it: this style of game was directly competing with Pokémon Go. When it comes to collectathon ARG games that demand your daily obedience, most people can't really find the space in their life for two, because there just aren't that many hours in the day and these games are so time consuming. (Which is one of the many reasons why the live service game model is unsustainable, but that's another topic entirely) Thus this game wasn't going to have a clean route to success from the getgo due to the plain fact that Niantic were already hogging their own prospective market with Pokemon Go. People who were playing that weren't just going to up-and-switch to 'Wizards Unite', they'd spent up to three years carefully gathering and curating their squad of Pocket Monsters, why give that up for Wizard stuff? I'm sure some out there could manage both, but most will have to pick one or the other and Pokemon Go had a real head start. And when we consider Harry Potter fans who are gamers and also like and play Pokemon Go (A very likely intersection in the Venn diagram due to the fact that both Pokemon and Harry Potter blew up for the same generation) then we end up even further delineating the pool of potential active players that this game was ever even capable of snagging on it's very best day.   

And finally there's the rug-pull kicker. The sour truth that we all really know but don't like saying out loud to one another. Harry Potter just ain't as big as you think. At least, it isn't really anymore. Unlike Pokemon, which has persisted and morphed to hit subsequent generations with a steady stream of games, TV show and regular seasons of trading cards, Harry Potter has just sort of shrivelled in the years since the last movie of the main series. It's still hugely successful and popular, mind, but it's nowhere near as actively popular that it's mere name might attract hungry masses. The Fantastic Beasts movies was met with initial curiosity that steadily dwindles with each underwhelming entry, J.K. Rowling's abrasive online personality makes it gradually less desirable for social media active fans to talk about Harry Potter and the lack of any other substantial content is hurting the series' staying power. Hogwarts Unite wasn't so much riding off the back of a redhot franchise as it was trying to stoke the cooling coals into a raging fire once again, and if they'd approach this game with that idea to mind, maybe Niantic would have spent more time creating something unique, which doesn't tread on their own shoes, and which was appropriately marketed to the masses as the next big release from the Wizarding world. Alas, shoulda coulda woulda.

What we're left with is a roadbump of an online game that is so easily tossed aside by history that the recent announcement of a Pikmin Niantic game was initially heralded with headlines like 'The first new game from Niantic since Pokemon Go'. Those are games journalists that just the other day erased this game from their own memory, keeping track of this stuff is meant to be their job! (But then, Games Journalists aren't exactly renowned for their... quality) Outside facing press has Niantic painting this as a logical next step that they planned from the beginning ("Not all games are meant to last forever. We accomplished... delivering a two-year narrative story arc that will soon be complete.") but considering that in the same breath they're talking about 'no refunds' and are taking this app off the store immediately, it's no secret that this wasn't the way the team wanted things to go. Here's hoping that Niantic learn from this lesson and the rest of the industry takes this as a teaching mo- Huh? Well, the Pikmin game might be charming enough to get a small fan base at- oh, there's the Fnaf Mobile AR game I guess- urg, and the Witcher one. You know what? There's no hope for any of us. Crappy doomed Live services will be popping up for ever more.