After reports of its existence leaked ahead of time, we have official confirmation that Pokemon GO developer Niantic has partnered with Warner Bros. to create an Augmented Reality game based on The Boy Who Lived called Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. Much like its Pokemon counterpart, players will explore real-world locations while playing the game to carve out their own unique adventures.
You'll be able to learn and cast spells and discover mysterious artifacts as you encounter legendary beasts who will likely function similarly to Legendary Raid battles in Pokemon GO. The game will also feature iconic characters from the mainline story, though what role they will play remains undetermined.
"With this game, we are allowing the passionate, worldwide fan base to experience J.K. Rowling’s deeply powerful and imaginative universe in a new, truly immersive way," said Warner Bros. President, David Haddad. "It is wonderful to have Niantic’s remarkable augmented reality expertise as we develop this incredibly rich wizarding world for players to explore in their everyday lives."
In many ways, Harry Potter fits the GO formula like a glove. Each of the Wizarding Houses substitutes for the Teams from Pokemon, and work out better since they are naturally a part of the story. The Houses also have the potential to evolve on the GO experience since there are four houses as opposed to Pokemon's three teams. And with the game leaning on iconic characters, there's the possibility of having unique quests being given out by different characters representing each house.
As far as concrete details, there isn't much else to go on, but we can expect to hear more about the game in 2018.
