Like Pokemon GO but with more British whimsy
Developer Niantic, known for the incredible success of mobile title Pokémon Go, has announced that the similar-looking Harry Potter: Wizards Unite will be going live on mobile devices this week. A beta test of the new AR title was previously held in Australia and New Zealand in April of this year.
Wizards Unite will put players in the role of a rookie member of the “Statute of Secrecy Task Force”. There has been an outbreak of chaotic magic in the world, and players will be charged with locating and containing these “Foundables” – a roster of weird creatures great and small – in real-world locations. Casting magic to secure Foundables costs a finite amount of energy, which must be restored at the game’s inns. The mini-movie below features a… somewhat dramatised example of gameplay.
Of course, there’s more to Wizards Unite than the mechanics described above, but it seems clear that Niantic are taking their hugely-successful Pokémon Go formula and applying the similarly-successful Harry Potter brand. I don’t know whether we’ll see the same scenes of chaos as we did upon the launch of Pokémon Go, but I’m sure for Harry Potter fans this new app will definitely be worth a download.
Harry Potter: Wizards Unite launches on iOS and Android devices June 21.
