Avalanche Software and Warner Bros. have confirmed that they are working on an extended version of Hogwarts Legacy, as well as a sequel titled Hogwarts Legacy 2. This news has excited fans, who are eagerly awaiting updates on the development of both projects. The expansion of the original game is scheduled to be released sometime in 2023, promising to offer more content and an enriched gaming experience. Meanwhile, players are looking for ways to enjoy Hogwarts Legacy while waiting for these updates. In this context, the free mod Night Curfew, developed by nathdev and available on CurseForge, has caught […]
Avalanche Software and Warner Bros. have confirmed that they are working on an extended version of Hogwarts Legacy, as well as a sequel titled Hogwarts Legacy 2. This news has excited fans, who are eagerly awaiting updates on the development of both projects. The expansion of the original game is scheduled to be released sometime in 2023, promising to offer more content and an enriched gaming experience.
Meanwhile, players are looking for ways to enjoy Hogwarts Legacy while waiting for these updates. In this context, the free mod Night Curfew, developed by nathdev and available on CurseForge, has caught the community’s attention. This mod introduces a new level of difficulty by allowing prefects to patrol the halls of Hogwarts at night, between midnight and 6 a.m., adding a stealth component to the game.
A mod that turns the game into a different game
With eight customized prefects, the mod imposes a penalty of 100 knuts if the player is caught by one of them. However, there is a safeguard: if the player has less than 1000 knuts, they will not have to pay this penalty. Additionally, the use of magical spells, such as the Disillusionment spell, can help players evade the prefects during their nighttime explorations.
The mod will also offer future updates that will further expand its content, making it an interesting addition for those looking for a new challenge in Hogwarts Legacy. These developments not only enrich the gaming experience but also demonstrate the commitment of the community and the developers to the work. With both projects underway, fans have much to look forward to in the magical world of Hogwarts.
Warner Bros has one of the strongest video game divisions in the industry. That doesn’t change the fact that it is also one of the ones facing the most problems currently. With 2,000 employees spread across more than a dozen subsidiaries, they have been struggling for almost a decade to meet expectations. This has led to a situation of constant game cancellations and massive layoffs among its studios. What is the reason for this? The management of a man who is no longer with the company. All of Warner Bros’ problems have a specific name At the end of […]
Warner Bros has one of the strongest video game divisions in the industry. However, it is also one of the ones facing the most problems currently. With 2,000 employees spread across more than a dozen subsidiaries, they have been struggling for almost a decade to meet expectations. This has led to a situation of constant game cancellations and massive layoffs among its studios. What is the reason for this? It is due to the management of a man who is no longer with the company.
At the end of January, the departure of David Haddad, the president of Warner Bros. Interactive, was announced. Having been invited to leave, rather than being fired, it was a move that was expected to happen sooner rather than later after he had a series of consecutive failures and there was not only a lack of clear direction in the video game division but also evident discontent among the studios.
Why? Because Warner Bros. Interactive reported losses of 200 million dollars associated with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, in addition to another 100 million dollars associated with Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions and MultiVersus. The first and last are the games that were supposed to lead the division during these years.
According to Bloomberg in an extensive report, the reason this has happened is due to Haddad’s lack of vision. With little to no interest in the world of video games, lacking knowledge of it, he was focused on chasing trends and wasting resources in useless ways, both by changing approaches midway through development and assigning games to studios that did not have clear experience in that kind of genre. This became especially evident in the case of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
Additionally, sources from the studies claim that communication was also poor. This often resulted in months passing without knowing what the company’s next game would be or whether they would participate in the next E3.
Closures, chaos, and various nonsense
This lack of communication is something that was perceived at many points during his presidency. When it was decided to close the Cartoon Network Games division, not only were a dozen games removed from physical and digital stores, but the developers were not notified in advance, who had to find out through the press. Creating a small chaos that could have been avoided had the situation been communicated beforehand.
In the same way, the lack of communication has a lot to do with the failure of MultiVersus and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. The former was launched in open beta, with great success, only to be closed and relaunched months later, with poor communication and extremely aggressive monetization, which led players to turn away from it. The latter was developed by a studio that was not specialized in that genre, when it was no longer trending, simply to try to ride a wave that was already passing.
Because that has defined the last years of Warner Bros. Interactive. From the presidency of David Haddad. Chasing trends at the wrong time, not knowing what the audience wants, and not listening to either developers or players. With the expected results.
The situation of Warner Bros’ four crown jewels
Thanks to Boomblerg, we know the specific situation of the four main studios of Warner Bros. Although not very encouraging, it seems that all four are working on different projects, to some extent. All of them demonstrating the obvious: that there is a very serious management problem within the company.
At Monolith Productions, responsible for the two Middle-earth: Shadow games, they have been working for years on a Wonder Woman game. Announced in 2021, changed directors last year, and restarted in early 2024, ensuring that we won’t see it for a long time. And aside from the fact that it will feature an evolution of the Nemesis system from their Lord of the Rings games, we know absolutely nothing about this game. Or if it will ever be released.
Warner Bros. Games Montreal, on the other hand, is in a delicate position. After the failure of Gotham Knights following several changes imposed by management, they have been serving as a support studio sending several proposals, all of which have been rejected. They finally accepted the proposal to make a Flash game which, after the box office failure of the movie, was canceled. This led to a large part of the studio’s management resigning and the rest trying to get approval for a project based on Game of Thrones.
Avalanche Software may seem to be on the other end after the success of Hogwarts Legacy. But we fear it is not that easy. The failure of Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions makes them fear that the success of the first game may not be plausible again and they needed external help from almost all Warner Bros studios to lift it, which puts them in a very delicate position regarding a hypothetical Hogwarts Legacy 2. Not to mention another project.
On their part, Rocksteady Studios is in a terrible position. Working on a new Batman game, the directors left the studio in 2022 and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice is the biggest failure in Warner Bros history and one of the biggest recent failures in video games. This puts them on the brink.
Is it possible to get out of this situation?
All of this does not mean that Warner Bros is not in a position to come back in full form. But to do so, they need to make concrete plans, measure their steps very carefully, and take into account their strengths and weaknesses. Continuing to chase trends and blindly swinging will only lead them to what they are currently heading towards: ruin.
Inviting David Haddad to leave has been a good start. But now they must do more. Much more. They need to secure interesting projects, in the right project, and pray that the talent to do so hasn’t been burned out by the disastrous management of the previous administration. All of this assuming that the current administration is not only better but suitable. Because Warner Bros is facing some very tough years ahead. They have come out of worse situations, Warner Bros included. But for that, future vision is needed, and it remains to be seen if they will have it.
It was clear from the outset that a game based on Harry Potter was going to be a success. And indeed, since its release in 2023, Hogwarts Legacy has established itself as a global phenomenon, selling over 34 million units and revitalizing interest in the magical universe of Harry Potter. Warner Bros. has stated that the sequel to the successful RPG is one of its main priorities, although its development is still in the early stages. The company is aware that there is a high demand for new content from the gaming community, who are eagerly awaiting […]
It was clear from its conception that a game based on Harry Potter was going to be a huge success. And indeed, since its release in 2023, Hogwarts Legacy has established itself as a global phenomenon, selling more than 34 million units and revitalizing interest in the magical universe of Harry Potter. Warner Bros. has stated that the sequel to the successful RPG is one of its main priorities, although its development is still in the early stages. The company is aware that there is a high demand for new content from the gaming community, who eagerly await a future installment that improves upon what was presented in the first part.
Despite the success of Hogwarts Legacy, there is uncertainty within the Warner Bros. management about the potential performance of the sequel. The development of the first installment was complex, requiring the collaboration of multiple teams, both internal and external. This experience has led many executives to have doubts about whether the previous success can be replicated. An example of this concern is the recent disappointment faced by another title based on the Harry Potter universe, Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions, which failed to meet the expected commercial expectations.
Additionally, the sequel to Hogwarts Legacy plans to connect its narrative with the Harry Potter series that will be developed on HBO Max. This could potentially increase fan interest and create a closer link between the different entertainment media related to the franchise. However, executives are realistic in acknowledging that not all Harry Potter-related products have been successful, so significant challenges lie ahead in the path to creating this sequel.
In summary, while the studios work on more content for the RPG and its sequel, the community is waiting for news that will confirm whether the interest in this magical world will endure over time.
The magical world of Harry Potter is not going through its best moment. This is no secret: JK Rowling has earned the dislike of a large part of the fandom due to her transphobic ideas, younger generations tend to laugh at millennials who are too much fans of the saga, and its popularity has declined so much that even sagas that were supposed to be immortal like Fantastic Beasts have ended up through the back door. However, at Warner, they are sure they still have a diamond in their hands that just needs polishing. And they think they know how. Harry Potter Cinematic Universe And it is […]
The magical world of Harry Potter is not going through its best moment. This is no secret: JK Rowling has earned the dislike of a large part of the fandom for her transphobic ideas, younger generations tend to laugh at millennials who are too much fans of the saga, and its popularity has declined so much that even sagas that were supposed to be immortal like Fantastic Beasts have ended through the back door. However, Warner is sure that they still have a diamond in their hands that just needs polishing. And they think they know how.
And there are two projects in the future prepared to resurrect the saga (or take it to the pits eternally). On one hand, the Max reboot in the form of a series, which will premiere throughout 2026 and about which we still know very -very- little. On the other hand, the sequel to the only thing that has really worked for the Wizarding World lately: Hogwarts Legacy 2 is already in preparation and they have not wanted to take any risks.
That is why they have already announced that the narratives of both products will be interconnected and their creators are coordinating to create, so to speak, a Marvel Universe but for Hogwarts. David Haddad, the head of games at Warner, has stated that “our data indicates that there are no major distinctions between the young and adult versions of a fan. They are deep fans of Harry Potter, and we try to build authentic experiences to delight them.” Which is the same as saying nothing, but at least it seems they are interested in preserving the “experience.”
However, the most critical fans can rest assured with all this, because JK Rowling is out of everything related to the saga beyond the books, although they still consult her: “If we are going to go further in a conversation about the canon, we want to make sure everyone is comfortable with what we do.” We will have to see if Hogwarts Legacy 2 and Max’s Harry Potter share, in the end, something more than just a couple of background references… because it doesn’t seem like Rowling will let them go much further.
According to reports, Nintendo wants to narrow the gap between current consoles and its own, and that includes AAA games being released late or with worse features.
For months it was the buzz of the Internet: ‘Hogwarts Legacy’ didn’t run well on Nintendo Switch, for obvious reasons: the graphics quality was worse, the loading times went up to 50 seconds, and the overall gaming experience couldn’t have been the same in any way. However, along with that general mockery came another assertion: it could be much worse. And that’s the key point.
Shiver Entertainment was in charge of porting not only the ‘Harry Potter’ game to Switch, but also Mortal Kombat 1 and ‘Mortal Kombat 11’, with decent results once again considering the capabilities of the console today. But beyond how well or poorly they do ports of others, why has Nintendo decided to make them an internal studio from now on?
Logic indicates that this is a strategic step towards, of course, Switch 2. Basically, everything that those games left to be desired was not Shiver’s fault, but Nintendo’s own and what it can offer right now. Basically, the fact that ‘Hogwarts Legacy’ is playable is already impressive for the big N. And they need launch games. Now.
But does it make sense to bother acquiring a studio that also does ports for third parties? According to reports, Nintendo wants to reduce the gap between current consoles and their own, and that includes AAA games being released late or with worse features. In a gaming world that, except for a couple of exclusives, will increasingly focus on cross-platform, the Japanese company needs to compete by any means necessary.
Does Nintendo want to break, even a little, its bubble and fully immerse itself in the current gaming landscape? It seems so. For now, the countdown for Switch 2 continues to sound, and rarely has a console brought so much hype with it.
The CEO of Warner Bros asserts that the future of the company’s games is games as a service, making interesting statements in that regard.
Warner Bros, in the field of video games, has had a rather bittersweet year. Although they have had some great successes, they have also had a series of resounding failures. This has led the company to think twice about what they will do with their developments from now on. Although the plans they have, and the results they have had so far, do not seem to fit at all.
At a conference organized by Morgan Stanley, Warner Bros’ CEO of streaming and gaming, JB Perrette, spoke about the future of the company’s gaming division. Stating that the console AAA market is very volatile, he says that from now on they will focus their efforts on creating games as a service, mobile games, and free-to-play games of well-known franchises. Seeking to create games that generate long-term revenue through aggressive monetization.
The interesting thing is that, to highlight the volatility of the AAA console market, it chooses its own example. It points out the performance of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League as an example of this, which has performed well below Warner Bros’ expectations.Ignoring, on the other hand, that it is actually a game as a service.
On the other hand, it’s not the only thing that Perrette ignores. Warner Bros’ most recent and monumental success has been Hogwarts Legacy, which has sold over 22 million copies, and it doesn’t fit into any of the three types of games they want to focus on in the future. Except that they have also taken it into account. Their problem with Hogwarts Legacy is that it ends in one sitting. It doesn’t generate money beyond the initial sale. They state that it would be interesting to make a game as a service around Hogwarts Legacy “where people can work, build, and play in that world continuously”.
While Perrette claims that she does not expect to see the current investment in video games at any point between 2025 and 2027, it seems that the company’s plans are closer to the Suicide Squad model than to the Hogwarts Legacy model. A questionable move, but it will be interesting to see how it turns out in the long run.
