With the sequel to Fantastic Beasts arriving in cinemas worldwide on 16th November, there's no better time to talk about the secret history of the Harry Potter video game series. In a new Did You Know Gaming video, independent game researcher Liam Robertson takes a look at Nintendo's failed Harry Potter pitch during the N64 era.
Prior to J.K Rowling's franchise becoming a global phenomenon in 1999, Nintendo of America's management decided it wanted to get the jump on developing the popular book series into video games. This followed the success of Rare's GoldenEye 007 game in 1997 - which was based on the James Bond license. Although Nintendo's headquarters in Japan had the final say, its American branch assigned Nintendo Software Technology Corporation (a studio located just down the road in Redmond, Washington) to work on ideas for Harry Potter games.

Of course, in order to gain an understanding of the wizarding world, the team responsible for coming up with these ideas were required to read every entry in the Harry Potter book series from cover to cover. At the time, NST was also busy developing multiple other titles. Eventually, it had two teams split off - with one working on a pitch for a Harry Potter game based on the main adventures and a separate team focusing on the fictional sport of Quidditch. Both of these titles were targeting a Nintendo 64 release. Full prototypes never saw the light of day, but there were art animations and mock 3D demos created. Only a few pitch documents and concepts still exist.
In the end, Nintendo made demands for exclusive rights to the franchise and talks with J.K. Rowling's reps broke down. Ultimately, the license went to Warner Bros. and Electronic Arts in order to reach the widest audience possible. Noticeably, the platform Nintendo had originally pitched its own ideas for never actually got a Harry Potter game.
Take a look at the full story in the above video and tell us if you would have liked a Harry Potter game on the Nintendo 64.
[source youtube.com]
Comments 23
I mean, given that Prisoner of Azkaban was published in July 1999, reading "every entry in the Harry Potter book series from cover to cover" took approximately six hours.
Maybe. I never had a 64.
Imagine if Nintendo made more games based on movies; that would be something. A Shrek game made by Nintendo would be amazing.
Imagine star fox with brooms
Wow, calm down Nintendo... I’d say Rowling made the right choice. While I’d have loved some first party HP games... exclusive rights to the franchise? That’s some illusions of grandeur there, Nintendo, no way any bestselling author in their right mind would sign that rather than sign with one of the largest movie producers and one of the biggest third party game developers (meaning the games could be multiplat). If they were a bit less greedy here, who knows what we’d have gotten...
Given the year, the N64 was in its infancy and I acknowledge they may not yet have known how well the PlayStation was going to do (though maybe they did, I’d have to look at the sales over time) so maybe their success with the NES and SNES was talking there, but it was a gutsy move... and it seemed to be a bit TOO gutsy, a quality Nintendo HP game or two right at the start of the HP boom would’ve definitely shifted some extra units, even if Square followed with their own HP game on PlayStation.
Plus I like the idea of a universe where Nintendo makes some book and movie tie ins, who knows if they’d match Capcom’s levels but it probably would’ve been better than... who makes most movie spinoffs, Activision? I think they just publish and it’s smaller studios but I could be wrong.
I'm actually kinda glad Nintendo didn't get exclusive rights for hp back then, just dosent fit right to me. Hell, Harry would even look out of place in ssb he dosent fit right.
It's no wonder why the 64 got left out of the list of consoles the first Harry Potter vg was made for as it came out around the same month as the game cube and the gba had come out 8 months prior to this. The 64 was at the end of its life and at that point was the start of Nintendo tending to do better with handheld sytems then everyone else, but falling short in the console department in contrast. Sure it took a bit longer to get one but its still better off that way as the popularity was kicking off. If it was made on 64 before that the game wouldn't have done as well as it more or less had to rely on the popularity that was there prior to its release
@ReaderRagfish they could still do that tbh. We're in an age where cloud strife has shown up in both ssb and kingdom hearts after all.
Interesting read
The GBC version of Philospher's Stone was quite good. Still need to play the ROM of Chamber. Glad it didn't go to Nintendo.
The PC games of the first few books were pretty good, but sadly the later ones seemed to go the way of most movie-based games. If Nintendo had the rights I feel like we would've ended up with better games.
I think the games would have been substantially better if they had been exclusive to Nintendo. Plus, the development team(s) could have made more refined experienced as opposed to trying to one-size-fit-all everything across the various home consoles (whilst rushing PSP, DS, GBA, GBC adaptations in the process).
This may have meant that the release of the games may not have necessarily coincided with the films, but the games would have been better off for it.
@jassonmike Nintendo 54?
I tell you what was amazing. Philosopher's Stone on the GBA.
The games we have now range from mediocre to pretty decent but if Nintendo had given the series the same special treatment as Mario and Zelda we could have had a real masterpiece on our hands. I don't know the sales numbers of the HP games, there are so many it must be a big number even if no one game ever sold a huge amount, but if several of Nintendo's biggest games can top 10 million then who's to say that not going with them was a wise financial decision? I guess we'll never know. I'd love a truly great Potter game.
I hope tht they bring those 360 HP games to the switch!
Crazy. In an alternative universe, we really would’ve had Harry Potter in Smash Ultimate.
An interesting piece indeed. I'm not sure if Nintendo should have been granted exclusive rights as that seemed a bit limiting.
As for EA's rights, I can deal with them being a publisher. When they started developing the games internally, however, is when I started getting less enjoyment from the games. I haven't played any of the Harry Potter games ever since playing the PC and DS versions of Goblet of Fire as I found them both to be quite meh.
Man do I miss the RPG HP titles developed by Griptonite....As well as the PC action/adventure setup of the first three titles.
Never cared for Harry Potter myself, but I wish this had come to the N64. I wish everything had come to the 64. I wish they still made N64 games today.
Eh Harry Potter wouldn’t be good for the system. It would have canabalised sales for Banjo Tooie and Conkers Bad Fur Day. Nintendo made a wise decision.
@ShadJV It's actually not that much of a stretch. In 1999 Harry Potter wasn't nearly the powerhouse brand it is today. Prisoner of Azkaban was a bestselling book, but nobody at that point had any idea how big the series was going to blow up. The real insanity started when book four came out the next year and the series went from "hot children's books" to certified Global Phenomenon.
Obviously, Nintendo's bid didn't pan out in reality, but it wasn't as preposterous as it might seem today, post-Pottermania.
@JasmineDragon you are correct, my bad. At that point I assume it was clear Nintendo was being dethroned, or at least that it was not a good idea to put all their eggs in Nintendo’s basket?
@Majora101 I realize that, it was my childhood. I clearly remember when the series started becoming mainstream and I wouldn’t say that happened until after a movie or two were out. I’m saying that Nintendo expected a lot trying to get exclusive rights here. Had they not tried that gambit, they would’ve had a shot, but all Rowling and her lawyers had to do was see if pretty much any entertainment company that was bigger than video games were interested in their books that were still top sellers, even if it hadn’t reached global phenomenon. It would’ve been one thing if Sony had tried that as they had their hand in more pies but Nintendo at that point in time was primarily just video games, and signing with them was limiting oneself to a single platform as well (and in an industry where they weren’t even leading at that point as the PS selling more by a large margin). HP may have been nowhere near the franchise it is today, but Rowling had made enough money to be picky at that point. It was a gutsy move by Nintendo at least and, had I been them, I wouldn’t have tried that with any bestselling book, as even then books were more successfully adapted into movies than games, and Nintendo clearly wasn’t able to offer that. And as mentioned, the PS was outselling them by a fairly large margin, it’s not like they were in the best negotiation position (if they were doing as well as the SNES era than maybe but still, any author worth their salt would sell to a movie studio before a game studio, and Nintendo was demanding exclusive rights to the franchise). In her position... if a game company was pursuing her, at least a small movie studio would too (she struck gold with WB), and if a movie came, other game studios likely would make offers (even if they were smaller). Holding out for movie deals would always be a better move if your book is a bestseller (and probably in general).
Let me emphasise the fact that these people were paid to read [emp]Harry Potter[/emp].
Is there a better Harry Potter game than Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Wii)? Cos as far as I know Nintendo still got the best Harry Potter game with this one. And I doubt Nintendo could have done it much better because Electronic Arts did an outstanding job making it a living breathing adventure with so much detail to the architecture of Hogwarts. I was hooked by the game, marveling at its tech (especially for a Wii game), and pulled in by its atmosphere, its open world and its many objectives and hidden secrets. Order of the Phoenix was the second best representation of "school life" in a videogame (next to that other amazing Wii game Bully).
Was this the last time Nintendo pursued exclusivity for popular non-game franchises? Apart from several Star Wars and Mickey Mouse games during the N64, Gamecube and Wii era, I couldn't find much. It seems Nintendo focuses on strengthening their own IPs for some time now, which is probably for the best.
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