Footage of a triple-A Harry Potter RPG is either a leak or a brilliant fake

A Redditor has posted some legit-seeming footage of a Harry Potter RPG online. Supposedly, the game will be set in the 19th century, and cast the player as a wizard who enters Hogwarts during their fifth year after a latent and unique talent for magic is discovered.

Soon after your arrival, “strange events begin to materialise in the Forbidden Forest and trouble begins to brew within the castle walls”.. Apparently you’ll become “one of eight different wizard types”, choose your house and your friends at Hogwarts, and “decide to pursue a path of good and evil.” The game is supposedly an “open-world action RPG” that will let you freely explore the Wizarding World for the first time, exploring an all-new story separate from the books or films.

That’s all according to the original poster, u/VapeThisBro (via Press Start). Digging into their replies, they claim they were approached by “a random guy” in a shopping mall who offered them eight dollars to watch a game trailer and fill in a survey.

Admittedly, that sounds sketchy as hell. Warner Bros hold the Harry Potter licence, as well as two studios – Rocksteady and Avalanche Software (not Studios) – who are capable of making something like this and are working on unannounced projects. Last we heard, Rocksteady was hiring for a new triple-A game, while Avalanche’s last release was Cars 3: Driven to Win, in July last year. We’ve reached out to WB for further comment.

Apply some scepticism, but the video itself does look pretty impressive. It shows several highly detailed environments in Hogwarts and its grounds, some high-end modeling and animation work, a character creator, and a number of UI elements that hint at different spells and systems. As a trailer showcasing the key features of a triple-A open-world RPG, it’s pretty credible.

There’s one bit that does raise eyebrows, though: that part where a goblin gets impaled. I mean, I know later Harry Potter books get a bit dark, but that seems a bit dicey for a kids’ game. Perhaps WB are taking more of a ‘young adult’ direction – we haven’t seen the age rating yet, after all.

Anyway, if it’s not legit, it’s at least a very impressive fake, so we figured you’d be interested regardless. As soon as we hear anything more, we’ll let you know.

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