The internet has been a firestorm ever since the confirmation of a new Harry Potter-themed game and it seems that the more information we learn about it, the worse it gets. There are a bunch of blatant culturally problematic aspects that will have to be overlooked and the whole issue with J.K. Rowling being directly bigoted so people don’t want to fund her. However, Avalanche Software and Portkey Games, a subsidiary of Warner Bros Games, are doing something with Hogwarts Legacy that fans of this series have been waiting for, and I can’t pass it up.
Let me start with the issues with the story. While we don’t want to be the ones stopping a revolution that seems reasonable to us, the game does take place 200 years in the past. That means the mindset, reality, and choices made would need to correlate with that era in time. But who said we had to conform? They have made it abundantly clear that you can be an evil wizard if you want in this game, even showing the player using the worst spell of them all - Avada Kedavra. Given the circumstance of the story and what side you stand on for the whole issues within, it seems like you can choose to be on whichever side you want. They have not shown a lot of the explicit choice moments in the story section of the game, so I’m hopeful that I can decide according to my morals and not be forced to stop the Goblins if I feel they are in the right.
As for the factor of Rowling getting funding from this game, this feels like a moot point. The truth is, this game is hardly something that will fund her. There are still movies coming out, entire sections within both the Universal and Islands of Adventure theme parks, and a whole list of other aspects that come into play before this game does. It’s a similar situation as when Diablo II came out in the middle of the Blizzard fiasco; funding the game is funding the developers, not the publishers and back-end creators (although I know they get a share). If Avalanche and Portkey do their job well, then funding this game is a well-deserved return.
On a side note, and likely a more cynical one, I’d like to point out that everything we purchase has more hands behind it than we know. From your groceries to your choice of entertainment, everything is brought to us by corporations, and in every corporation are people we don’t agree with. Just because you know who and why you dislike someone, doesn’t mean there aren’t similar - if not worse - people behind the curtain of your other favorite purchases. The goal is to balance how much you want or need something, who put the true effort behind it (in this case the developers and publishers), and if you would personally be happier with your purchase than without it.
Now, I know that this doesn’t justify a lot of things and honestly, I’m not trying to justify the game. What I am standing up to justify is my reasoning behind Hogwarts Legacy being my most anticipated game of 2023 and why I will be getting it no matter what. If following my morals of today in a game set 200 years in the past makes me an evil wizard, but I feel good about my choices and I got to do all the cool wizard activity I have been waiting for, then so be it! With how open they have shown this game to be in both experience and exploration, it should be easy enough to simply not do the parts of the game I don’t agree with.
What do you think of my stance on this game? Did my point of view on the situation help you decide whether or not to get it yourself?
Hogwarts Legacy is set to release on February 10, 2023, for PC via Steam and Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, then on April 4th for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and then on July 25th for Nintendo Switch. If you plan to pick this one up, be sure to check out all the great pre-order details. Don’t forget to set up your official fans account so you can connect it to your account and have a personalized setup when you begin school!
