When Warner Bros. Games announced Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions, many fans of the Harry Potter universe were surprised. It was a widespread belief that a Quidditch mode would be added to Hogwarts Legacy as a paid DLC, especially given the enormous success of the game made by Avalanche Software (it already earned over $1.3 billion in revenue, according to Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav).
However, Warner Bros. Games had worked on an entirely separate standalone multiplayer game for several years. Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions is being developed by Unbroken Studios, a Californian game developer that previously made a post-apocalyptic Battle Royale game (Fractured: Broken Lands) and helped Rocksteady with the upcoming game Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
Unbroken Studios has been conducting limited closed beta playtests. The most recent one is still ongoing, and someone on Reddit leaked a few videos showing flying and character customization.
The character customization video is arguably the most interesting leak. Players can choose from various face presets, including Harry Potter himself. Following Rocket League's example, visual customization also includes the broom itself, broom trails, goal celebrations, and victory celebrations. These seemed to be all unlocked, though it may be for the purpose of the playtest.
Since Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions lets players swap their roles in a team at any time, the customization system allows them to tweak every role so each feels visually unique. Speaking of roles, here's a recap of their respective basics:
Chasers are agile wizards whose task is focusing on scoring (controlling the Quaffle ball and getting it through the goal). Beaters, on the other hand, are equipped with a Bludger, an iron ball that can be used to knock opponents off their brooms. In the second video embedded above, they are shown summoning the ball and using it to do exactly that.
The Seeker is a unique role in that it is tasked with finding the Golden Snitch and catching it before the enemy Seeker. In Harry Potter lore, catching the Golden Snitch is worth 150 points for the team, though we don't know yet whether the rule will be identical in this game. Lastly, the Keeper's job is to protect the three goalposts of their team from the rivals' attempts to score.
Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions doesn't have a release date yet. When it launches, it will be made available on PC and consoles.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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