Warner announces fresh Harry Potter games push, including new Niantic title

The Boy Who Lived is going to have another stab at conjuring up a video games sales success potion.

Warner Bros has announced not only a new Niantic title in the vein of Pokemon Go, but also some as of yet unspecified console and mobile games, all of which fall under the new Portkey Games moniker (for the muggles among you, in the universe of Potter – the Potterverse? – ‘portkeys’ are items that have been enchanted to transport anyone who touches them to another location).

“Almost five years ago Niantic launched Ingress, our first augmented reality mobile game, turning real-world streets, neighbourhoods and cities into a global game board, and bringing people together in a shared digital reality,” Niantic said.

“Pokémon GO brought that vision to the world at unprecedented scale and served as a catalyst for the further development of the Niantic platform.

“With Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, players that have been dreaming of becoming real life Wizards will finally get the chance to experience J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World. Players will learn spells, explore their real world neighbourhoods and cities to discover & fight legendary beasts and team up with others to take down powerful enemies.”

The accompanying Warner Bros press release speaks of players ‘exploring their local surroundings and taking part in a series of adventures, such as searching for magical creatures and bumping into iconic wizarding world characters along the way’.

As for the other in development titles – note the plural there, as Warner very much talks about mobile and console games – the company suggests they will feature a mixture of familiar settings from the existing lore as well as new locations and characters ‘inspired’ by it.

“With Portkey Games, we are thrilled to answer the fans’ requests for more games inspired by J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World,” Warner Interactive president David Haddad said. “We are working with talented creators to build games that focus on player-generated stories, which will live alongside the magical universe created by J.K. Rowling.”