Ever since Pokémon Go became a phenomenon in 2016, people have been waiting for the next big augmented reality (AR) game to dethrone it.
So far, nothing has managed to get the same sort of mind share and while the initial excitement over Pokémon Go has faded, it still has a large player base thanks to regular updates that not only keep the mechanics fresh, but also add new creatures to collect.
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But there’s finally a new contender about to launch and it definitely has the fanbase to pose a threat to those cute pocket monsters.
It’s Harry Potter, duh!
Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is being developed and released by Niantic, the same company behind Pokémon Go , so we can at last trust that they know what they’re doing when it comes to AR tech.
They partnered with Warner Bros. in November 2017, but instead of rushing it out the door, they’ve taken the time to get things right.
It would have been easy to just paste Wizarding World creatures on top of the Pokémon and cash in, but Wizards Unite is clearly its own thing.
The game centers around “The Calamity,” a mysterious event in the Wizarding World.
The Calamity has caused magic, monsters, and even memories to bleed into the Muggle world and wizards around the world need to help find and contain them before the truth about magic gets out.
Like filling your Pokédex, you find traces of magic “Foundables” while walking around in the real world.
By finding their exact location with your phone, you interact with the Foundable to contain it and send it back where it belongs.
Besides interacting with magical traces you find, you’ll also be able to find potion ingredients and even Portkeys.
Some of the memory events are even of familiar scenes from the movies and books.
The game has been in beta testing in New Zealand and Australia for the last couple of months
People seem to be having a lot of fun with it there and the rest of the world has been anxiously awaiting word on the worldwide release date.
It’s June 21, 2019!
Instead of giving us a date far in the future and letting us sweat, the game is coming out in only a couple of days!
So if you suddenly see random crowds of people descending on strange places come Friday, that’s why.
Of course, like with Pokémon Go , it’ll likely be a bit hard going for the first couple of hours. No matter how much a publisher plans for a big launch day, the servers always take a hit.
Niantic appears to be planning for that by staggering the worldwide release by region, starting with the US and UK.
For now, though, we’ll just have to watch the game trailer on repeat.
Last Updated on June 19, 2019 by Amy Pilkington
