Those who were already afraid of another wave of postponements can now (for now) breathe a sigh of relief.
Lots of drama surrounding Hogwarts Legacy and Warner
We remember. Last week, rumours caused a stir that the hotly anticipated fantasy role-playing game set in the 19th century Harry Potter world, Hogwarts Legacy, would not be released until 2023 after all. This was triggered by Colin Moriarty, an industry insider with close contacts to WarnerMedia, who spoke on the Sacred Symbol podcast about a difficult development of the game. The news quickly made the rounds and the outcry was great.
But now the tweet from WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar finally gives us some clarity. He talks about the goals for 2022 and at the same time confirms the release of not only Hogwarts Legacy, but also the equally anticipated AAA title, Gotham Knights.
Record revenues. A leading streamer just 19 months into the HBO Max build. Setting the pace for this industry creatively. It’s been only a few years since we embarked on going direct to customers and going global. I am proud to report on behalf of the team that it is working. 9/x
– Jason Kilar (@jasonkilar) January 26, 2022
Two top open-world titles from Warner with such a strong and far-reaching brand. Hogwarts for the Potterheads, Gotham for the Batman fans. Clearly, the media company is betting on two horses and the calculation could work out. After all, both franchises already unite a huge fan base. And most likely, the final release date will be adjusted so that the two video game blockbusters do not cannibalise each other in a month’s time, but appear with some distance to each other. Fans of both worlds as well as the developers and the publisher will only be pleased. Because already now both games look very promising.
Two Worlds, Two Games, Multiple Heroes
And yet, in detail, Hogwarts Legacy and Gothem Knights are already very different games. While in Hogwarts we can craft our own personal wizard avatar, specialise it, visit classes with it as well as the wider wizarding world, Gotham Knights is a pure action fest. Also notable. Despite the developer studio’s ties with Sony, both Hogwarts Legacy and Gotham Knights will be released for PS5 and PS4, as well as Xbox consoles and PC.
In the gritty and familiar Gotham from the Arkham games, we will control several members of the Bat-Family, Robin, Nightwing, Red Hood and Batgirl, either solo or in co-op, and with them free the city from Batman’s rogue gallery. The gameplay is clearly designed for combo-oriented battles against bosses and their henchmen. What is new, however, is the role-playing aspect with equipment, abilities and certain character values that we can improve. We also know a little more about the story here. Among other things, it will be against the secret cult known from the comics, the Court of Owls
We hope there will only be good and content-rich updates to Hogwarts Legacy and Gotham Knights from now on. Full of sample material, story info and game scenes. And, of course, that there will be no further changes to the release.
