Hogwarts Supremacy

 

When I look back at 2023 it is with a startling realisation that I remember how Hogwarts Legacy actually released that year and yet somehow didn't get a Game of the Year nod. I mean sure, it wasn't worthy of being slid into the 'Ultimate Game of the Year' category, but you'd have thought there would have been some sort of 'adventure game' nomination or something. The title wasn't some sleeper hit that got swept under the rug. It was a mover and a shaker, it got everyone talking and most importantly of all in the eyes of the money-hungry- it is reportedly the number one best selling game of the entire year! That's right, throw away your COD, bury your GTA and even shelf your Baldur's Gate 3's! (Even if that might be an objectively superior game) Because capitalism says Hogwarts is your king!

And to be fair, the game really did earn it's success. It appealed to the one basement desire that every video game needs to rock around to at some point in the complicated and pretentious process of purposeful envisioning: it fulfilled a fantasy. Particularly the fantasy to be a member of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but more specifically the fantasy of exploring the world conjured up in the books of J.K. Rowling and hammered into stark realisation by the movies of Warner Bros. I actually think it's the visual identity that Warner Bros. invented for the movie which the game relies most on selling, with the wider tidbits of world and lore serving as mere garnishing for the truly obsessed. We wanted to walk on the sets of those movies as though they were real, and Legacy gave us that first opportunity!

Which is really the biggest victory of Hogwarts Legacy, because when it comes to actually roleplaying as a witch or wizard- the game is merely serviceable. There many suppositions and apparent data-mined information of scrapped systems and half finished ideas that tell the story of a game that wanted to be something of a true-to-heart RPG, but which settled for something of a Minimum Viable Product in the systems of what this game needed to be. What might have been a somewhat replayable RPG fantasy instead become an inspired Far Cry coded exploration empowered action adventure game with a throw-away narrative draped across a personality soaked world. It must be a testament to the sheer performance of those world builders, that all that nitty gritty substance which typically sets me off melts in the magic of the world coming together. That doesn't happen by accident!

I think in my blog review on the game I actually summed it up nicely when I said the most exciting thing about Hogwarts Legacy isn't even the game on offer itself, but rather the potential of what the game could lead to with sequels and the like. And whilst I don't think we've had a sequel announced in any official capacity- come on- they'd be insane not to! (And we have got a Quidditch themed side game which should get an announcement at some point.) Looking back, it's speaks to the bar of 2023 that such a big and loud game as that got lost under the turmoil and craziness that the rest of 2023 contained. But the buying public never forgot it! Not for a single errant moment. I suppose there's little more likely to score the big bucks than a product which has appeal to the general consumer and not just the game-consuming public.

As Gaming Bible has pointed out in their piece on the topic, with 22 Million sales- Hogwarts Legacy is just 1.6 million odd away from slipping onto the best selling video games of all times list, (as credited by the world's most foremost historian in both their prolific catalogue and unquestionable respect= Wikipedia) and in doing so knock Mario Kart DS off the list- as cruel as that would be. It really cannot be understated how successful of a game this was, particularly in the face of the apparent boycott that was kicked up over the game on social media following grumpy assertions as to the personal politics of the team and that of known curmudgeon J.K Rowling. (Because every Harry Potter fan just loves JK, don't we? That was sarcasm, we knew she lost the plot before the rest of the world did.)

It really does reflect poorly on the strength of such movements and backlash, seeing stratospheric numbers like these, and though I have to wonder if all of that controversy might have contributed to the game's erasure from the 'Game of Year' nominee list, there's no arguing with the buying power of the public. It's the same problem that activist buyers have run into over the rise of low effort cash grab franchises or meticulously overzealous monetisation practises- although these issues sound so big and important in and around your small circle of friends, no one cares outside that little bubble. Criticism is washed away by undeniable success and suddenly you're a footnote in somebody else's story. (Which is why we switched to hassling legislators- that certainly gets things done quicker!)

Warner Bros. have, of course, got their hardy gloves and milking buckets out when it comes to the potential of this franchise. Since Fantastic Beasts has managed to ride it's goodwill directly off a cliff with increasingly pathetic movies, video games are currently the most sure bet that the Harry Potter franchise can rely on. (We'll see if that upcoming TV series manages to conjure up any interest.) David Haddid, President of WB, alluded to as much in an interview with Variety. He stated that there are a "series of other things" swirling around their heads when it comes to the Harry Potter franchise, and that no doubt is going to manifest into Ubisoft levels of oversaturation until we're so sick of Hogwarts we just want to blow the whole place up and start again! Which they will then do and move us to the American School. (Or maybe the French one? Always liked those uniforms. As eloquent fashion icon Ron Weasley himself had to say on the matter: "Bloody hell!")

All I'm asking for in regards to the coming Harry Potter deluge is another back-to-basics experience. A game that tells the story of one's entire Hogwarts career, from induction to graduations- in order to allow us to literally live the career of our own Hogwarts hero. Of course, you'd need a studio as insane as Larian to commit to making such a product, particularly with effective RPG mechanics and choice and consequence wound into a story that large, but the potential! That would be the crowing achievement of this franchise worthy of hanging one's hat on. That would redeem the Harry Potter name in the eyes of the public. That is the final form of this Harry Potter Portkey Gaming experiment that all of us are slap-dab in the middle of.