Niantic's 'Harry Potter: Wizards Unite' Augmented Reality Game Shutting Down

[MacRumors]

Niantic has experienced major success with augmented reality game Pokémon Go, a title that still has a loyal fanbase, but unfortunately, its Harry Potter-themed game has not fared as well. Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is going to be shut down on January 31, 2022 as a result.

First introduced in June 2019, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite allows players to join the Statute of Secrecy Task Force to explore Wizarding World locations in the real world, similar to Pokémon Go.

Players need to go to landmark locations in the real world to track down magical artifacts, creatures, and enemies to battle and level up. The game uses augmented reality to project portals and other items onto real-life landscapes, and there are real-time cooperative elements involved.

The game will be removed from the App Store on December 6, 2021, which is also when in-game purchases will be disabled. As a last hurrah, starting on November 2, several changes will be implemented to make gameplay more fun.

Daily assignments will provide increased rewards, potion brewing time will be cut in half, the daily cap on sending and opening gifts will be removed, and various items and ingredients will appear on the map more frequently.

November and December will also see the launch of several events involving Dolores Umbridge, Lucius Malfoy, Bellatrix LeStrange, and Voldemort, along with a holiday event. The game will wrap up, with the Calamity coming to an end before the app is shut down for good.

Players who invested money in the game will not be able to get a refund, but they will be able to spend their remaining balances and use their items before the January end date.

Article Link: Niantic's 'Harry Potter: Wizards Unite' Augmented Reality Game Shutting Down

 

[WestonHarvey1]

"several changes will be implemented to make gameplay more fun"

Maybe they should have done that earlier?

 

[Think|Different]

And the crowd goes mild…

 

[ThirteenXIII]

augmented reality seems like a no go for a lot of things

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Yeah, this game kind of seemed like a failure the second it launched.
kind of feel bad for anyone who used any in app purchases though, barely getting three months of notice before the app completely closes is kind of crappy.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

augmented reality seems like a no go for a lot of things

I don’t think it’s the augmented reality aspect that made this game fail.

 

[Minato1990]

**** was wack as hell spent 20 mins and deleted it so fast.

 

[m4mario]

i used to play this when it came out. Had me hooked for a week or so. Made me walk around the park and all. Then it felt like I was doing more and more of the same without much story progression. Then I deleted it.

Collecting digital stuff can’t be a game in itself. The digital stuff has to unlock something more than the ability to collect more digital stuff.

 

[SDJim]

**** was wack as hell spent 20 mins and deleted it so fast.

Yeah, I want it to be super clear that this failure not only has nothing to do with the size or quality of the Harry Potter fanbase, it has nothing to do with Pokemon Go, either, but is entirely due to it being a sucky game. Just really not engaging. The gamification and story progression were both just so weak. I think I deleted it after like a week.

 

[MallardDuck]

First thing we did was disable the AR. Then it was fun for a while but turned into a repetitive grind.

And you had to play both solo and in groups to advance. So for one side or the other, it was a dead end.

 

[SD449]

Wizard Good-nite……amirite….

I’ll get me coat

 

[till]

I only tried it for a couple days when it was first released, but I was struck by the poor usage of the theme. In particular, the stuff you were collecting just wasn't at all interesting.

It's death when your pokemon reskin has really boring pokemon.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Any Harry Potter fans out there?

 

[211]

I tried to play it for a while, but gave up. Too complicated with barely any instructions on what to do. Pokémon Go started off simple and you got used to another layer of complexity with each update. I would say Pokémon Go is now complicated for someone new to the game. This was the problem with Harry Porter: Wizards Unite. It threw you in at the deep end. What you could understand become very repetitive

 

[MrJM]

It was just a rubbish game riding on the coattails of Pokémon Go. Surprised it lasted this long!

 

[iBreatheApple]

I’m a massive Harry Potter fan but apparently I’m not. I’ve never heard of this.

 

[iBreatheApple]

"several changes will be implemented to make gameplay more fun"

Maybe they should have done that earlier?

Or perhaps it’s a “let’s see if we can reignite a movement and worse case we still have to shut down anyway” …?

 

[aesc80]

"several changes will be implemented to make gameplay more fun"

Maybe they should have done that earlier?

This literally echo'd in my mind as I read the article. "Oh noes, we need to break down the game! Screw it - make it fun!!!"

EDIT: Willing to bet "making it fun" will mean "tearing down the paywall"

 

[Art Mark]

Brands run their course. RIP Harry Potter.

 

[Regbial]

i used to play this when it came out. Had me hooked for a week or so. Made me walk around the park and all. Then it felt like I was doing more and more of the same without much story progression. Then I deleted it.

Collecting digital stuff can’t be a game in itself. The digital stuff has to unlock something more than the ability to collect more digital stuff.

Exactly. And I think this is how the new Pikmin game functions... I expect a similar article to this about that game in 1-2 years...

Niantic got lucky with Pokemon GO, which itself is also losing steam... They don't seem to fully understand this. But also, the executives over at WB trying to make Harry Potter something bigger than it actually is don't seem to understand that either or see it clearly.

 

[frito1224]

I figured this would happen to it no one in my town plays this game everyone plays pogo though, I’m kinda surprised NiAntic hasn’t shut down ingress it doesn’t seem to get a lot of play anymore but it was their first game

 

[ncc1701d]

A lot of people move to "ingress" once they try PGo and HP.

 

[coolkid93]

i blame muggles

 

[840quadra]

Ingress is / was my favorite title from them. Played go for a few days, just too pokey for me. Still dabble in Ingress

 

[Art Mark]

I'm going to add one more point but this isn't really my thing anyway. BUT - I read that this has in-game purchases or a 'paywall' or whatever you call it. The thing is if they took a damn minute and looked at the value of the brand overall - having a FREE, engaging game that keeps the brand vital and people interested - that is worth WAY more than the couple of bucks they extract from kids who play it. The brand LITERALLY makes millions (billions?). Whether or not I like it, who cares. It's very possibly an evergreen brand that needs care, attention and love. Not 'let's cash in and make a few bucks on a so-so game that milks fans outta bucks.' F them. Make it great, put it out there and build value and interest. All these brands that grow old need enthusiasm and care and love. The more they cash in with sh*t games tossed out to make a buck - the more they drive down the value of the thing they most need to protect.