A sequel to Hogwarts Legacy is one of the Warner. Bros. Games’ “biggest priorities,” according to Warner Bros. Discovery’s chief financial officer— backtracking on a previous comment to pledge to live-service titles.
As reported by Variety, during an interview at Bank of America’s Media, Communications and Entertainment Conference on Sept. 4, Warner Bros. Discovery CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels spoke about the importance of delivering a sequel to the smash hit from 2023, but emphasized it will be “a couple of years down the road.”
Hogwarts Legacy was a huge hit in 2023, selling a whopping 22 million copies by the end of the year and bringing in over 707 million hours of playtime among the player base—and now a focus is being placed on creating its successor.
Though a sequel to Hogwarts Legacy seems an obvious choice on paper, there have been mixed messages coming out of the bigwigs at Warner Bros. Games as J.B. Perette, the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, indicated a desire to lean on a live-service format.
The failure of Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League and the struggles of other live-service titles in the industry may have shifted that plan, however, as a more direct sequel to Hogwarts Legacy is now top of the to-do list.
The previous stance from Warner Bros. Games, alongside the fact that the latest comments were made at a media conference—and were potentially an attempt to attract investors—is a bit of a concern, and it’s still unclear if this sequel will include live-service elements.
We can only speculate about what this sequel will look like, but there’s a possibility Hogwarts Legacy 2 may not work as well as the original game because we’ve already explored Hogwarts and its surrounding areas like Hogsmeade in their entirety. Though, a sequel could take place in the larger wizarding world.
While the wider wizarding world has many recognizable places for Harry Potter fans to explore, however, Hogwarts is the centerpiece of the franchise and the most recognizable environment—so striking a balance will be a difficult task.
Published: Sep 5, 2024 05:14 am