The Harry Potter MMO was being developed by EA and even a playable demo was ready, which they actively tested with younger audiences before it was canceled. At the time, EA had the rights to make Harry Potter games, and Salzer reported that the MMO, which takes place in the universe, reached the beta stage before it was canceled. According to Kim Salter, EA’s former vice president and director of marketing for the company, the studio canceled the Harry Potter MMO project because it didn’t think the franchise would have a long-term interest.
The reason for the cancellation, according to a former EA employee, was that they didn’t know if the Harry Potter series could have long-term success. Apparently, Kim Salter, who served as director of product marketing for video games company Electronic Arts (EA) from 2000 to 2003, told Twitch that massively multiplayer online (MMO) is for Harry Potter was in development at EA. but was canceled. This was because the publisher thought the game would only last a year or two on the shelf, much to her disappointment as she was heavily involved in production.
The next PC games were supposed to be released this year, but it has been delayed until 2022. Although Hogwarts Legacy was originally slated for release in 2021, Avalanche Software and Warner Bros. decided to postpone it until next year. At the very least, the franchise will continue in the gaming world with the upcoming launch of Hogwarts Legacy in 2022, this time unveiled by Warner Bros. Games.
Salzer states that the MMO Potter was in beta and was a combination of online and offline events where things like “awards and ribbons” are sent to you. The team was confident in the success of the games, but the publisher abandoned the project.
“Typically you know I just don’t know the starting point, but it’s huge for me because I was personally involved with it and it’s such a big IP that it survived, this is a massively multiplayer internet game for Harry Potter. It was a combination of offline and online skills where we could actually send different things to young people like prizes, recordings, and the like”.
At least, with the upcoming Hogwarts Legacy (this time issued by Warner Bros. Games) in 2022, the franchise will continue to exist in the video game space. Although EA executives were worried at the time, IP continues to exist in today’s games. The new Harry Potter game “Hogwarts Legacy” was developed by Avalanche Games This Harry Potter prequel set in the 1800s is likely to include the choice of transgender characters, the death system, and the ability to use dark magic.
The reason for the cancellation, according to a former EA employee, was that they didn’t know if the Harry Potter series would prove to be a long-term success. While the sidebars released at the time worked pretty well, there was always a sense of a missed opportunity in the wizarding world. Young followers of wizards could travel to a magical world in a massive MMO that EA has decided to cancel.
Unfortunately, even if we can easily imagine what an MMO might look like, this project never appeared. However, none of the planned projects saw any light. This may be the time when the project was considered but not planned. However, it was dropped due to the lack of a longer time frame due to the fact that EA was making some changes at the time and therefore simply did not know or did not consider it sufficient that this IP would have a longer shelf life of 12 months.
