It’s been revealed that Warner Bros. Games has chosen to scrap a project that would have added more content to the blockbuster game. According to Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier Hogwarts Legacy developer Avalance Software was set to partner with Rocksteady Studios to produce new storylines for the 2023 hit. The added content would also be included in a definitive (director’s cut?) edition. Both had been planned for a 2025 release but it seems in what has become the modus operandi for Warner Bros., the project has been scrapped.
Despite being one of the best-selling games ever, reportedly at over 34 million copies sold and beating a 14-year record previously held by Call of Duty, WB Games apparently didn’t have enough faith that there were enough fans to support moving forward with the project. According to the report, it was believed that players would not pay for the extra costs of the extra content. It would seem that at a time when the price of real-world eggs has seen drastic price increases, WB Games feels it’s too risky to see if the Hogwarts Legacy goose can lay another golden egg.
Ironically this choice goes against a recent statement by the publisher who recently announced it was making the “very difficult decisions” choice to close multiple studios including Monolith (Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor/Shadow of War and many more) so that it could focus on its key franchises which prominently included mention of the Harry Potter.
Per WB Games:
“We have had to make some very difficult decisions to structure our development studios and investments around building the best games possible with our key franchises—Harry Potter, Mortal Kombat, DC, and Game of Thrones.“
Hogwarts Legacy 2
The last update regarding the sequel game indicated it was still in development. WB Games has said prior that Hogwarts Legacy 2 is one of the company’s highest priorities so there’s a chance it might still be production. Warner Bros. Interactive’s president David Haddad, who announced in January that he would be leaving this month following 12 years with the company, said the game would also incorporate story elements from the upcoming Harry Potter HBO streaming series.
Discussion (7 replies)
Join Discussion →Let's shoot a billion dollar game that can keep.cfanking out money in the foot. Yea why not. That couldn't hurt us right?
IT's not a live-service game...that's the main reason for not updating the game. WB has been wanting to get that sweet sweet money from live service and has failed each time. Hogwarts may have given them huge money, but since it's not live service and falls short of (idiotic) expectations.
They should be pouring resources into the next game in this setting at a new school. Problem is that requires creativity.
I'm just waiting for the day WB is sold off or assimilated into another company. The amount of idiotic decisions made across the board never seems to end.
At this point, I've got some serious doubts about how much effort has been put into development for a second game. We should've had a teaser trailer or something by now. It should've been greenlit and put into production with the original team from Avalanche right after making those sales records yet all that's been thrown out are crumbs.
The word you're looking for is AGAIN. Warner Communications, Time warner, AOL Time Warner, Time Warner Entertainment, AT&T, and now warner Bros. Discovery.... they change hands more frequently than an aging trophy wife get spastic surgery.
Most companies that buy such things are usually not much better in the decision making stuff, see how many studio's EA has killed over the years among others.