Last year, Niantic – the development team behind Pokémon Go – announced it would be partnering with Warner Bros. to create a brand new augmented reality mobile game – Harry Potter: Wizards Unite.
Since then, it’s been deathly quiet, with virtually no news around the upcoming mobile title. However, a (brief) new teaser trailer was finally released today, showing a hint of what we can expect to see next year.
The trailer largely focuses on the player, depicting how the game itself will be played using AR functionality. Unfortunately, any real gameplay footage has been left out, possibly hinting at how far along it may (or may not) be in development.
At the beginning, a Ministry of Magic logo is revealed, above the words “Repello Muggletum” – a reference to the Muggle-Repelling Charm from the series. Subsequently, a flash of the “Statute of Secrecy Task Force” logo can be seen as well. Later in the video, what appears to be security camera footage of an alleyway shows a poster stating:
“THE WIZARDING WORLD IS AT RISK OF EXPOSURE – WE NEED YOUR HELP – WIZARDS UNITE”.
After visiting the website, it’s made clear that these images are in reference to the “Calamity” – a phenomenon where “traces of magic” are “appearing across the Muggle world without warning and in a rather chaotic manner”. It is clearly very Sirius.
In the video, a young witch can be seen capturing a rogue Golden Snitch. It would appear that the basis of the game will be similar to Pokémon Go – where players will use AR to find and capture magical items out in the real world. The website states:
“…You will hone lighting fast wand reflexes, an ability to sniff out the faintest whiff of magical disorder from afar, and proficiency in advanced casting of multiple spells”.
The final call to action is for users to “Enlist Now!” and join the Statue of Secrecy Task Force. Upon entering your birth date and email address, you become a member, and are told that you will be kept posted “on the unfolding calamity” via email.
The game is set to Apparate onto mobile devices in 2019.
Will you be playing Wizards Unite upon release next year? Would you enjoy gameplay similar to Pokémon Go’s mechanics, or should it be a different style of game? Let us know in the comments below…
[source harrypotterwizardsunite.com]
Comments 42
Yes but how are russian gamers being robbed of freedom of choice this time?! I MUST KNOW!
The first 18 months will be ruined by people spoofing / cheating... I'll pass.
It honestly sounds like a very cool concept and a nice use of AR. Unfortunately, I loathe being glued to my cellphone during my free time, so I'll give it a miss.
It's going to be the same game isn't it lol.
Why is NL covering this? B/c Niantic made it? Bit of a stretch, no?
Are we going to get articles about all of Microsoft's games since they own Minecraft and Minecraft is on Switch?
Huh, fancy that, they set up a separate development company for this one.
Probably to keep everything clean in terms of IP handling. WB are pretty strict with Harry Potter.
Pretty cool setup. I hope I can get to play as a nosey muggle.
@rjejr Why not? I can just picture, "Halo is coming out on a device not at all associated with us"
I'll wait until we get Harry Potter: Let's Go Weasley and Let's Go Granger...but that might take couple of years
Huawei Phone System seller 🙄
I'll stick with KH3, Metroid, FE, Sekiro and all the other games in 2019 on "dedicated gaming devices" thank you very much.
Oh I thought that Harry Potter mobile game that came out a few months ago was Niantic's one. I guess that was something separate.
@GrailUK Probably, I mean Pokemon Go is basically the same thing as Ingress.
The real question is, which school are you?
Jigglepuff, Honchklaw, Sniverin, or Silvaldor?
@macalao914 Agreed.
@rjejr For you to complain about it clearly.
It's not really a big deal.
The game looks fun, really enjoy Pokemon Go and Harry Potter so im excited for it!
@MasterJay Halo
That's pretty much how I felt reading this article looking for the "Why you should care" statement.
@Neko77 It's not a big deal, it's a better article than all of those Amazon ads, but the website is called "Nintneod Life", it's not a general gaming site like Dual Shockers, IGN or Eurogamer. I'm nto opposed to mobile games, I like Dragalia Lost, I own Mario Run, and I've even played a little of AC Boot Camp, and yes I even recently took Pokemon Go back up. But Nintneod doesn't have a phone or tablet, and they don't own Harry Potter. Just b/c Niantic made the game, a company who as far as I know hasn't even made a game on a Ntinedo device, made it, seems a bit of stretch. There are 100,000 games on mobile, should they cover every one by any company who may have some 6 degrees of separation with Ntineod?
They could have at least tried to connect it to Nintendo somehow, but I don't feel they did.
Since it's Niantic, I'm guessing I won't be able to do anything in this game either and will be major waste of my time...
@rjejr I understand where you are coming from, and sorry if I sounded rude. Was just kinda annoyed with the comment. The article is aimed at people who enjoy PoGo, and in turn, might be interested in this. At least that's how I see it. So I think it has a least a little bit to do with Nintendo.
@rjejr kinda got to agree. This game has very loose reasons to be featured here.
@Kimyonaakuma: I'll wait for the sequels that are coming the year after that tell the TRUTH about these Harry Potter villains....Let's Go Riddle and Let's Go Lestrange. 😈
@rjejr
Oh, relax
@rjejr Niantic made one of the biggest Nintendo games of recent history and this is based on the same engine. A stretch? Hardly.
@Damo "one of the biggest Nintendo games of recent history"
No Nintnedo Life user has ever thought to themselves - "What are the biggest games in Ntinedo's history" and thought "Pokemon Go". Well maybe Antimatter, Go and Labo are probably his first 2 choices, but that's still only 1 person. Everybody else is thinking Mario, Zelda, Metroid, AC, mainline Pokemon games. Not Go.
"based on the same engine"
Oh come on now, you know that's a stretch, a huge, cumbersome unwieldy stretch. Nobody cares about the game engine. How many Switch games use UE4? A bunch, right. Does NL cover every UE4 game ever made, even those only on PC, Xbox, or PS4? Of course not, it's just an engine.
Why can't you just be honest and say - Harry Potter is popular so we covered it. If Niatintic had made a new AR engine for this game would you not have covered it then b/c it wasn't using the same engine as Go? Be honest now. Harry Potter >>>> game engine
@RodSD64 This is me relaxed Mr. hipster Miiverse avatar dude, I was simply asking a question about a story's relevance for the site and it's relationship to Ntinedo, thinking there was one I missed. Sometimes there's one of those throwaway sentences somewhere like - Niatic has said this game will come to the Switch if it meets it's Kickstarter goal" - or something. There's always a kickstarter goal. Cause, you know, they probably need a kickstarter after making more money than god w/ Go.
@Neko77 That's fine if your annoyed with my comment, I get that a lot. But this whole article feels like, if somebody made a comment about this one of the moderators would reprimand them for being off topic b/c it has nothing to do with Nintendo. Fortunately they aren't as crazy about being off topic on NL as they are at PS, where just mentioning anything not Sony will get you a stern talking too and a threat of banishment, but this still seems kinda out there. Guess I have to get used to a lot of unrelated mobile games being covered on here now, but you'd think with over 1,300 games on Switch they'd focus on those.
Have you seen any article on here covering the big new update in Runner 3 adding easy options, and the price was cut yesterday from $29.99 to $9.99 for the next 2 weeks. Her'es a forum topic I made last week. Seems more relevant than this news.
https://www.nintendolife.com/forums/nintendo-switch/runner_3_-_improved_and_cheaper
@brunojenso Try to keep your head down and stay under the radar, I didn't include you in the last long multi-reply post so as not to make you a target.
@Rika_Yoshitake HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Looks interesting enough for me to give it an go
I’m just going to put this out there. Harry Potter is for people who enjoyed being at school waaay too much. Pokémon is for people who like having adventures.
@rjejr No, but in all honesty, I love Harry Potter and can't wait for this game. Happy they made this profile I probably wouldn't have seen this awesome trailer
@Tyranexx I would actually play that! Let's Go LeStrange would be awesome
@rjejr I agree man, this is a bit of a stretch. Especially since PoGo isn’t even that original, it’s based on Niantic’s previous game... Ingress I think it’s called? At best, PoGo took the concept, slapped a skin over it, and popularized it. This game will be based on Ingress as much as it’s based on PoGo. I was a bit confused to see an article on this here, it’s fairly unrelated to Nintendo, it’s not published or developed by them, doesn’t use their IPs, and isn’t much different than Niantic’s prior two AR games (which PoGo wasn’t even the first of).
And no, I’m not heavily invested in whether this article exists of NL (as long as the website doesn’t just start reporting on every little thing within 6 degrees of separation of Nintendo), but I agree with rjejr here, it’s a bit of a stretch to connect Niantic’s HP game to Nintendo.
@Dogorilla yeah, both HP games were announced awhile back, the other one isn’t really Niantic’s MO, it’s more of a traditional smartphone game while this one is AR, like Niantic is known for.
@rjejr They are probably putting this up here because of pokemon go probably. Since this team worked on Pokemon go, so it would seem fine to talk about this because of that. That would be the excuse to why Nintendo life did this article.
@rjejr First time I've seen you spell Nintendo correctly
When I read the title "first look" I was the kind of fool to actually expect a gameplay trailer. Well, if Pokémon is any sample of Niantic's quality I believe this game should be avoided for at least a year, maybe two. That's the time they need between launch and the update that actually brings fun to the game.
Seems like their trying to get that wave of renewed popularity out of up the same way they did with pokemon.
Wonder what late 90s early 2000s phenomenon will be the next "go" after this hp go...
I hope it's digimon, digimon need some more life breathed into it.
I won’t be playing this. The mobile game market once had potential but now it’s just become a gold rush with devs overcrowding it with time wasters ridden in micro transactions.
The proper Harry Potter franchise is also dead with no more books and movies being produced. That Fantastic Beast spin-off is horrible and the movie was one of the worst I saw that year. It’s a shame because the idea is good but the ending was all fireworks and nothingness.
LOL! Another click bait article on this stupid trailer, like on many other sites.
Sorry, but this is just nothing more but an ultra short Teaser showing.....absolutely...…… NOTHING!
When you say "First Look", we expect a first look at "actual" gameplay! /facepalm
@rjejr Are you serious? The numbers speak for themselves, not just in terms of revenue, but in play count. Pokemon Go is a massive, massive game, I can safely tell you that from the visitor data we have on this site. You may not think that, but reality doesn't always conform to what's in your head.
And 'Harry Potter is big so you covered it'? We don't find many Potter fans visit the site... the PGO angle is what made us cover this. Niantic's engine is hardly as widely-used as Unreal either (it's in what, two games so far?) so that comparison is totally wide of the mark.
I'm not into it myself, but I know quite a few potterheads. I'll make sure to tell them.
@Kimyonaakuma Nah, it'll be "Let's Go Weasley" and "Let's Go Potter," seeing as the girls married into those two families.
@rjejr
Why am I a hispter? Hahahaahhaha
@RodSD64 I didn't say you were a hipster, I said your avatar was a hipster. You may not be a hipster, I'm certainly not a frog.
@rjejr
Well, my Mii avatar looks just like me in real life haha
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