After the — literally — billions and billions of dollars that the Harry Potter franchise has earned up to this point, the obscene numbers of fans and followers, and the status as a massive crossover pop culture phenomenon, one has to wonder: why don’t we have a Harry Potter MMO yet?
I’m not one to often speculate on what IPs would make great MMOs, but I’m really scratching my head with this one. It’s one of the biggest franchises in the world (check), it’s fantasy but of a different nature than the swords-and-sorcery that have oversaturated the genre (check), and with the huge box office of the latest film, coupled with the record-breaking sales of the last book (check) you’d think this would be a no-brainer. I mean, when people are running around on a football field with broomsticks between their legs because they so desperately want to pretend that they’re at Hogwarts playing Quidditch, then there’s a pretty strong demand going on for some virtual escapism. This demand and the lack of any real Harry Potter MMO is probably — certainly — one of the driving forces behind the success of the kid-friendly, Harry Potter homage Wizard 101. If they’re going to move on this, it should be sooner rather than later, seeing as how no future books are going to be written, and there’s only the two-part Deathly Hallows film left for Warner Bros. to exploit.
There may yet be hope for MMOers. One of the strongest, persistant rumors is that the MMO rights have been acquired by Turbine, who landed a large multi-million dollar investment in 2008 and has been working hard on at least one future MMO (console-related at that). Warner Bros. (which, like Turbine, falls under the umbrella of parent company Time-Warner) dropped this quote in June of 2008:
The notion of creating a Harry Potter multi-player online role playing game is something that we’ve been discussing at Warner Bros. for a number of years and continue to explore. We are currently investigating the possibility of creating our own MMORPG, but unfortunately do not have any further details to share at this time.
Since then… nada. Nothing. Silence.
Perhaps this is the big secret console project Turbine’s been hammering away on, perhaps not. What I do know that is if they’re not doing Harry Potter, and if nobody is, then they’re missing one of the biggest chances for a breakout MMO IP that could — dare I even say it? I dare! I dare! — take on World of Warcraft with a massive fan base that might try a Harry Potter MMO despite avoiding the genre so far.
It’s fun to speculate on what such a MMO might be, particularly because so much of Harry Potter’s world lends itself well to MMO mechanics. Players could take on the role of a student entering year one at Hogwarts and slowly progressing through all seven years as they adventure (leveling!). Hogwarts itself would be a quest hub for stories both within and outside of its walls (questing!). Players would take classes and specialize in various schools of magic (character classes!), obtain special items like potions and invisibility cloaks (loot!), battle mystical creatures and duel other wizards (mobs! PvP!), join one of the four houses (factions!) and eventually graduate the school and take their place in the wizard world (end game!).
In the void of a real Harry Potter MMO, saavy game developers KingsIsle Entertainment have swooped in with their kid-friendly, magic-themed Wizard 101, which is about as close to Harry Potter as you can get without breaking any copyright laws. The sheer popularity of that game is testament to the huge demand for a Potter-like experience.
I don’t think a Potter MMO will become moot if it’s announced well after the last movie is released in theaters, but they will have missed a great opportunity to capitalize on a current craze and offer desperate fans who wish to keep the story going a way to do so. Hopefully we’ll hear something more on this in the near — versus far — future.
P.S. – Check out my Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince movie review on Mutant Reviewers!
Never really thought about it but the idea fits perfectly. It could do some serious harm to WoW if done right. And if turbine is doing it I think they have a shot. LOTRO is really good, still a little upset over the xp per a level change. My only remark on your layout for design is that I hope the “specialisation” is more skill based/classless system. I also hope you actually have to do tasks and puzzles to get spells, not just a crap quest chain of kill rats for someone.
We do, its called Wizard 101
As much as I hate everything the harry potter franchise has spawned besides the books (which, while good, upon looking back aren’t as good as they’re made out to be…) I think that would be a game I wouldn’t mind playing, if done right. XD
Oh no, it’s all coming back to me! Crucio! Cockroach clusters! Neville Longbottom! WHYYYYYYYYYYYY
Good article and well thought out. You should work for an MMO company you’ve got it all figured out. (Have you ever wanted to be a consultant for one? Have you ever been asked?)
I’ll get flack from the Potter crowd for saying this but … please, God, no. I think there’s plenty of Harry Potter out there already. Do we need more? Seven books. How many console games? All the movies. It’s run its course and will be lawded for all time and will be looked back a hundred years from now as these great works of literature. Sadly so.
Great literature? Not really. Entertaining? No doubt. All things popular need not always expand. I guess it won’t be long before there’s an American Idol MMO.
Honestly, I don’t know if it’s 100% feasible. Hogwarts is a small area compared to Middle earth or Azeroth. They’d need to take serious liberties with JK Rowling’s mental universe to create a vibrant world that people could explore in, and even then, it doesn’t explain what people how people could cut class.
Unless, we’re talking about a post-book series HP world, and not an in-book universe. That may show some promise, but may detract from fans’ appreciation.
UNLESS!!! OMG. Caverns of Time instancing in a Harry Potter MMO.
This was probably the most likely film based MMO out there, as you said a massive fanbase – good backstory/fluff already written – fair bit of PR every time a film is released and family friendly so anyone could play it.
Bet the idea of an MMO must have been discussed quite a bit since it would have been such a money spinner. Now it probably will be a bit to late to get maximum impact from films PR wise although i am sure it would still do well.
I would love a Harry Potter MMO. It would be incredibly difficult to do right, though, because of the high expectation from the success of the franchise as a whole. In my experience, the only successful franchise MMO has been World of Warcraft, and the reason it’s a major franchise now is because of the MMO, not the other way around.
Existing IPs have too much baggage to deal with that hinders the creation process (see Star Wars Galaxies and/or LOTR’s sordid history before it was LOTRO).
Not a bad idea! What’s next, a Twilight themed MMO??? That would keep the tweens happy!
Hmm, this all makes me think of Matrix Online: a good IP for an MMO, and also a Warner Bros IP… that crashed and burned. I wonder if Warner Bros is hesitant to repeat the experience. I suspect it would have to be an established game company, like Turbine, and that they might have to do a very convincing/fun working demo to get a final green light on the project.
I have to agree with Cheshiremythos on this one in that while the various schools of magic could certainly be used for a class based system I feel that a skill based system would not only be more in tune with how the HP world works, for the type of audience it will attract it will likely feel more natural and exciting for them, being able to experiment with their characters a bit more. Besides, skill based systems still allow for specializations wherein a character with many skills across the board can specialize in Charms or what have you.
If it were to use a class based system characters like Hermione wouldn’t make much sense and while you could argue that she is a unique case with her own special class I think that would be a serious breach of verisimilitude in the game’s universe. That’s not to say players should necessarily be allowed to create a character on par with Miss Granger, but that possibility should at least seem like a reality. Besides, what do you do in school aside from learn new skills (and goof off, but that’s besides the point)? It just makes more sense to me and seems more necessary than in, say, LotRO where classes work just fine within the world’s mythos.
And Victor, as far as Hogwarts being too small for an entire MMO, there are plenty of potential areas to travel to such as the schools of some of the other wizarding tribes (can’t remember the names) as well as the wizardly alley of shoppes (god my memory sucks) and there could be great potential for interesting mechanics and dynamic choice and consequence by allowing players to travel amongst muggle populations in outlying areas as well. And let’s not forget just how huge Hogwarts is to begin with. Aside from being a massive, malleable castle there are also expansive grounds containing forests, underwater merman colonies, and other mysteries, as well as the nearby village students often sojourn to (memory strikes again!).
And now I am waaaay to excited for a game that doesn’t exist. Thanks for that!
There are no balls around to do a Harry Potter MMO the way it should be made.
I like the thourt.????
Well, apparently it’s more than just me who would like to see this done. I think, like Victor said Hogwarts is a small area, but it would be cool if they made it like Hogwarts is a major part of the game, then you move on to a profession, you can be on the death eater side, ministry, The Order of the Phoenix, be an auror, or even a teacher at Hogwats. There are so many different things they could do with the Harry Potter wizarding world. It would be amazing!
Wizard 101 is fantastic but it costs, if Harry Potter MMO comes out it should be free except if you want all hoko shcmoko fancy stuff and a unicorn pet it would cost.
Yay there making something at harry potter official site and I think it’s a MMO!!!!! It’s called the wizardworld of harry potter.