Details on Harry Potter Wizards Unite have finally been shared by Niantic, Inc. and WB Games San Francisco. The augmented reality mobile game will feature content and characters from the original Harry Potter series as well as the current Fantastic Beasts movies. The game’s website welcomes you with a series of flashing images before concluding with “the following information is now officially muggle-proofed.”
The premise of Harry Potter Wizards Unite involves something called The Calamity. Players are invited to use learn spells and use their wands to “solve the mystery of The Calamity.” The Calamity is causing items such as people, creatures, artifacts, and memories to disappear. These items will be referred to as “Foundables”. It is the player’s job, as a new recruit of the Statute of Secrecy Task Force, to find these Foundables and battle The Calamity.
To discover Foundables, players will need to locate “Traces” of magic. These traces of magic will be found in “parks, banks, municipal buildings, college campuses, libraries, monuments, zoos, art galleries, and more”. Traces appear similar to Pokemon Go’s Pokestops while capturing foundables with spells would appear to be the game’s version of capturing pokemon.
Harry Potter Wizards Unite will also include “Fortresses”, similar to Pokemon Go’s “Raid” battles, which allow players to team up in a battle. While Pokemon Go sold players pokeballs and items as a form of monetization, these could also be found in the world, Wizards Unite appears to be using “Spell Energy” and “Potions”. Spell energy and potions are both used in the capturing of foundables.
One-way Harry Potter Wizards Unite will be setting itself apart from Pokemon Go is through some “full 360-degree Advanced AR immersive experience[s]”. Players should look out for “Portmanteaus” within in the game, discovering these will reveal “Portkeys”. The portkeys will let players step into full locations from the world of Harry Potter, such as Ollivander’s Wand Shop.
Late last year, a trailer was revealed for Harry Potter Wizards Unite. The trailer gave fans their first real look at the game, however, players can now find out more on the game’s website as well as on social media platforms. Harry Potter Wizards Unite fans with an Android phone can pre-register for the game now, while iPhone users will have to wait.
