Entertainment
EA thought Harry Potter was a fad so canned a Wizarding World MMO
EA must be kicking itself nowadays (pic: WB Games)
A former EA employee says that the company shut down a potential Harry Potter MMO because it didn’t think the brand had a long shelf life.
A massively multiplayer online game set in the world of Harry Potter seems like a no-brainer. Die-hard fans of the franchise would love nothing more than to live out their own experience attending Hogwarts, learning spells, and forging their own wizard/witch identity.
While the concept remains untapped, it has emerged that such a project was in the works at one point, back when EA held the license to make Harry Potter games.
In an interview with Twitch streamer The Real Brandalorian, Kim Salzer, who was EA’s director of product marketing from 2000 to 2003, was asked about games she worked on that ultimately never came to be.
She says, ‘A big one for me, because I was so personally involved in it, and it’s such a huge IP that has lived on is an online massively multiplayer game for Harry Potter.
‘We did all the research, we had the beta built out, it was a combination offline/online experience where we’d actually mail stuff to the kids, like prizes and ribbons and stuff like that.’
So, why did EA cancel the project? Salzer says it’s because the company wasn’t sure if Harry Potter would remain popular for long enough.
‘It was killed, for lack of a better term, because EA was going through changes at that time, and they just didn’t know or believe enough that that IP would have a shelf-life longer than a year or two.’
Admittedly, Harry Potter was still in its infancy during the early 2000s. In the time Salzer was with EA, only the first two movies had come out. But considering the books and both movies were huge financial hits, it’s rather baffling that EA wasn’t completely confident in its future success.
It’s much more ironic nowadays, with the franchise remaining a cultural phenomenon and poised to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the movies. Warner Bros. has since taken the license back from EA, with it setting up the Portkey Games Label to specifically make Harry Potter games.
While there remains no sign of an online multiplayer game, the upcoming Hogwarts Legacy is set to provide fans the exact sort of game they’ve wanted for years.
Set in the late 1800s, Hogwarts Legacy has you create your own custom character to attend Hogwarts and explore an open world environment. Avalanche Software, which previously made Disney Infinity, is developing it.
More: Gaming
The game is set to launch in 2022 following a delay, but it, along with the rest of the franchise, remains mired in controversy due to series creator J. K. Rowling’s frequent comments about transgender people.
It’s reached a point where it seems like Warner Bros is doing all it can to separate the franchise from Rowling. The company put out a statement saying that she had no involvement with the creation of Hogwarts Legacy and that she won’t even be making an appearance in the Return To Hogwarts anniversary special.
Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, and follow us on Twitter.
MORE : Harry Potter reunion: Tearful Emma Watson comforted by Rupert Grint in emotional trailer
MORE : Harry Potter fans beg bosses to ‘keep James Corden away’ from 20th anniversary cast reunion
Follow Metro Gaming on Twitter and email us at gamecentral@metro.co.uk
For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.
