A ‘Hogwarts Legacy 2’ Update, With A Surprising Link To The Harry Potter HBO Show

Hogwarts Legacy has now sold an astonishing 30 million copies after previously being the best-selling game of 2023, despite being made by a new studio and being the first game in a new series. 23 years after the release of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, the universe still has tremendous draw.

That’s what WB is banking on, and now they’ve given an update about Hogwarts Legacy 2, and how they’re actually going to try to tie it into the upcoming Harry Potter TV show coming to HBO.

A new article from Variety says that Hogwarts Legacy 2 is already being worked on, as it appears the original game has forgone all potential DLC and is leaping straight into a sequel. This is reportedly a big priority for Warner Bros. Discovery’s bosses, though we don’t have any update on whether it will stick with the single-player, microtransaction-free, one-off story structure, or if it will weave into what David Zaslav openly wondered about regarding an “ongoing” Harry Potter game. It’s a bit of a baffling notion given that Legacy was a megahit with the single player model, and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League lost $200 million switching from Arkham’s format to a live service that currently has (checks charts) 130 players on PC.

The new information here, however, is that WB seemingly plans to link “big picture storytelling elements” in Hogwarts Legacy 2 “with the storylines that will play out in the Harry Potter HBO series.”

The Harry Potter show will indeed cover the seven books in the series, presumably one per season, but maybe more. So this would imply that Hogwarts Legacy may be moving to a “present day” Harry Potter timeline, which is a stark difference from its current setting of 1890. The Fantastic Beasts movie series (which is now dead) takes place between 1926 and 1945. Harry Potter was between 1991 and 1998. So that’s a hundred year leap, at least.

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This description does not seem to imply to me that players will take control of Harry, Ron or Hermione for the game, but may participate in events adjacent to the show. I also wonder if an idea might be to make it a more immediate prequel to the series, something that takes place in, let’s say, the ‘80s as opposed to 40-50 years ago like Fantastic Beasts. But that is not confirmed.

The timeline of this may prove difficult in terms of linking the two. Streaming series production usually means 1.5-2 years in between seasons, meaning that we’re looking at probably over a decade for this HBO show to unfold. On the flipside, AAA video games do not do well with fixed deadlines which lead to either rushed releases or lengthy delays.

WB has all the elements to make Hogwarts Legacy 2 a megahit, but if they try to go live service, or they try to use it as a marketing arm for the Harry Potter series, that may end up backfiring significantly.

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