Hogwarts Legacy set for a Holiday 2022 release date

Time Stamp: March 18, 2022 5:54 AM

Alongside a gameplay reveal during a dedicated State of Play stream, Warner Bros. has confirmed that Hogwarts Legacy will release in the ‘Holiday 2022’ window at the end of this year. The game is coming to PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC.

The stream embedded above featured 14 minutes of new gameplay, all captured on PlayStation 5. The graphics look great, though some elements, such as camera angles, have been modified for the video. The game looks rather good, certainly fitting in with the look and feel of the Harry Potter films for the way that magic is visualised.

The game is set in the 1800s, casting you as a newly enrolled student at Hogwarts. Perhaps unsurprisingly, you are able to tap into an ancient form of magic that is being awoken in a way that could alter the future of the Wizarding World.

When you start, you’ll create your own wizard and then be sorted into a house of your choosing. You’re actually starting Hogwarts late as a fifth year, so you’ll have some catching up to do in regard to attending classes such as Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, and Potions. You’ll also get to hang out in the common rooms and try to make friends, who could then become companions to join you on your adventure. Of course, as an action RPG, you can upgrade and master your abilities, earning experience and specialising your character.

Hogwarts Legacy Potions

Outside of classes, exploring the castle of Hogwarts will uncover dungeons, hidden pathways and curious puzzles. This could lead you to parts of the castle that you’ve never visited before. You’ll also be able to hop onto a broom, and tame mystical beasts that you can then ride.

At the heart of the game’s story, you’ll initially be working with Professor Fig to see if the rumours of a goblin rebellion are true. You will have to fight this goblin faction, in addition to creatures that have been corrupted by the aforementioned dark magic, and other wizards and witches. There’s an uneasy alliance between the goblins and the dark wizards.

There’s an extensive FAQ about the game here.

Hogwarts Legacy Combat

Avalanche Software have been on the case developing the game, but it’s not been the smoothest sailing. One of the main problems for Warner Bros. to navigate has been that Harry Potter author JK Rowling decided to reveal to the world that she’s an awful transphobe, meaning that there’s quite a few people weighing their ability to detach a creative work from the people involved. That was made a touch more difficult when one of the producers on the game was discovered to have made strongly anti-feminist and pro-Gamergate YouTube videos prior to their hiring. They soon departed the team’s development, and it was leaked that the game would have trans-inclusive character creation options. We didn’t get to see that in full detail in the stream, but the character creation does look very flexible.

Beyond that, there’s just the difficulties of developing a huge, big budget game and doing so in the midst of a pandemic that completely alters how developers can work and collaborate together. Having been rumoured for years leading up to its 2020 reveal, Hogwarts Legacy was originally expected to release in 2021, but just a couple of weeks into last year, it was delayed. It looks like it’s now on target for a new release date.

Source: YouTube, Hogwarts Legacy

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