Remember
Pokémon Go? It feels like it was an age ago, but it was actually only in the summer of 2016 that the popular video game made its transition to smartphones across the world. There was a point where you couldn't get on a bus without spotting a dozen people (of all ages, mind you) tapping away on the app, as if they had become inducted into some bizarre cult overnight.
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/moryan/status/753394960389386241]]
For those who somehow missed out on this craze, the game was a free-to-play location-based augmented reality game that was available on both iOS and Android devices. While that may sound complicated, all it means is that you would go to certain areas to catch a particular Pokémon, which you can see through your phone's camera, as if it were roaming the real world.
[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/OhKimmies/status/752025100807876609]]
I knew that Pokémon has a
rabid fanbase, but I was taken aback by the lengths people went to on their quest to catch 'em all. It was a huge success, maybe too much so. The idea was to encourage gamers to be more active, walking around their area and getting some exercise, but there were a number of strange incidents. Players wondered onto railway tracks, walked into the ocean and caused traffic congestion across the world. Maybe if they placed some Pokémon in voting booths the turnout for elections would be half-decent.
What other franchise has the same passionate fanbase? Well, likely the most fervent fans in the world are those obsessed with the
Harry Potter books and movies. And now it has been confirmed that "the boy who lived" is getting his own version of the AR game, which will no doubt dominate the planet on its release.
That's right - Niantic Labs, the developer who made Pokémon Go, have announced they will be releasing Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. The game, which will be co-developed by Warner Bros. Interactive and Portkey Games, is set to launch in 2018.
Weirdly enough, a game similar this was rumoured last year, but the rumour was subsequently debunked. Now, according to the website Techcrunch, the game is officially happening, so either they were keeping quiet about it or decided that they'd jump on the idea.
The details are still scarce, but many believe it will draw influence from one of Niantic's other games, a sci-fi AR game called Ingress, which allowed players to roam the real world collecting power-ups and exploring the environment.
You can imagine how the world of Harry Potter would play into this, as there are a plethora of characters and creatures that could be interacted with in various ways, as well as some spell-casting gameplay here and there.
While this news will be exciting for many, I think I'm going to stay away from this one. Not because it seems like a bad idea, but because it's such a great one that I think I would never stop playing if I started.
