On summer solstice, the highly anticipated mobile game Harry Potter: Wizards Unite was released for Android and iOS devices.\u00a0 This game is from Niantic makers of Pokemon Go, one of the highest earning mobile games of all-time.\u00a0 Considering Harry Potter has a larger fan base than Pokemon will Harry Potter: Wizards Unite be just as big or even bigger?<\/p>\n
The short answer is no.\u00a0 While it is still too early to make an ultimate judgment, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is destined to be a much smaller game than Pokemon Go.\u00a0 Of course, considering how big Pokemon Go was (is) that is not a failure.\u00a0 It is just a reality of the nature of the franchises.<\/p>\n
Pokemon Go is noted for being an augmented reality game.\u00a0 Users walk out in the real world and catch Pokemon which appear as part of the scenery in the camera on their mobile device.\u00a0 The game was a huge success when it launched in the summer of 2016 with over 40 million daily users.<\/p>\n
Two years later, the buzz had slowed but during the summer of 2018, Pokemon Go still had 5 million daily users.\u00a0 This was a higher paying core base that keeps Pokemon Go as a steady $500 million to $1 billion annual revenue generator.<\/p>\n
Of course, Pokemon was based on a Japanese anime and video game series launched in the 1990s.\u00a0 The portable Pokemon video games are one of Nintendo\u2019s biggest success.\u00a0 The games are now in their 7th generation of release, with an 8th generation launching later this year.<\/p>\n
Harry Potter is a book and film franchise that in terms of the number of users is much larger than Pokemon.\u00a0 While a generation of Pokemon games can sale up to 30 million units, the first Harry Potter book has sold over 100 million units (extending the Pokemon analogy there are 7 Harry Potter books and 8 films).<\/p>\n
Furthermore, the Pokemon games were designed to be used by a single user, with only one save slot.\u00a0 Books were designed for sharing with multiple users per copy.\u00a0 Each Harry Potter could have multiple readers. Add in the films and spin-offs and it is clear that Harry Potter has far more users than Pokemon.<\/p>\n
In late 2017, Niantic announced it was working with Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment to build an augmented reality (AR) version of Harry Potter to mobile devices.\u00a0 Like Pokemon Go, this would be a free-to-play game, monetized by buying virtual currency for in-game items.\u00a0 At first glance, on paper, this seemed like it could be even bigger than Pokemon Go.<\/p>\n
After extensive testing during the initial few days, DFC confirms its initial opinion that Harry Potter: Wizards Unite will simply not be as big as Pokemon Go.\u00a0 This is despite the fact that augmented reality is in its early stages and has significant growth potential.<\/p>\n
Pokemon is often seen as a game for children.\u00a0 In reality, it is a complicated competitive video game.\u00a0 Hundreds of Pokemon, each with dozens of statistics and capabilities, compete against each other.\u00a0 In some ways, it is statistics for the masses.<\/p>\n
The beauty of Pokemon Go was that it appealed to the core users while simplifying the formula for the masses.\u00a0 The game is free and not as complicated as the core video games on which it is based.\u00a0 As such it greatly expanded the Pokemon audience.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite appeals to a niche base of the existing Harry Potter audience.\u00a0 This is a complicated game for the users that care deeply about the inner workings of the Harry Potter universe.\u00a0 Users not only should be super Harry Potter fans, but they need to be into complicated video games.<\/p>\n
DFC actually had trouble getting users to test Harry Potter: Wizards Unite.\u00a0 Most of our regular video game testers were simply not that excited about the game.\u00a0 It was quickly dismissed as Pokemon Go with Harry Potter characters.\u00a0 We ended up also reaching out to fans of Harry Potter who were not really into video games in the first place.<\/p>\n
In many ways, the assessment of Pokemon Go with a Harry Potter theme seems correct.\u00a0 Unfortunately, Harry Potter does not work as well with a real-world AR theme.\u00a0 Pokemon is about wild creatures found in normal environments.\u00a0 The original video games were about walking through a neighborhood collecting Pokemon.\u00a0 It is perfect for that type of AR.<\/p>\n
The Harry Potter universe is about a hidden wizard world.\u00a0 The AR portion seems tacked on and almost unnecessary.\u00a0 The idea is magical creatures are loose in the Muggle (human) world.\u00a0 It simply does not fit with the core appeal of the character-driven Harry Potter universe.<\/p>\n
On a beautiful Sunday on June 23, we went to the prime Pokemon Go spots in the downtown area of San Diego.\u00a0 During weekends in Balboa Park, home of the San Diego Zoo, it was often hard to walk because of the crowds of Pokemon Go players.\u00a0 In Balboa Park, we found exactly one other Harry Potter: Wizards Unite player.<\/p>\n
Across multiple locations, we visited that, was it.\u00a0 Furthermore, we couldn\u2019t engage that player because the game crashed.\u00a0 On top of not really offering anything new, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is extremely slow and buggy at launch.\u00a0 The game was also extremely aggressive in trying to monetize users.\u00a0 Not a good thing on a product that buggy.<\/p>\n
Of course, those problems can be corrected.\u00a0 Pokemon Go thrived by continuing to improve. Harry Potter: Wizards Unite may eventually find its niche.\u00a0 However, when our hard-core Harry Potter fans met the game with a major shrug of indifference we had our concerns.\u00a0 Playing the actual game only amplified those issues.<\/p>\n
It should be stressed that Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is in its early days and has plenty of growth potential.\u00a0 This game should be a success, as long as it is not considered in the same league as Pokemon Go.\u00a0 Overall augmented reality games are just scratching the surface of their potential appeal.\u00a0 Harry Potter: Wizards Unite remains in generation one of AR.\u00a0 We are still waiting for the next big step.\u00a0 Minecraft maybe<\/a>?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On summer solstice, the highly anticipated mobile game Harry Potter: Wizards Unite was released for Android and iOS devices.\u00a0 This game is from Niantic makers of Pokemon Go, one of the highest earning mobile games of all-time.\u00a0 Considering Harry Potter has a larger fan base than Pokemon will Harry Potter: Wizards Unite be just as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":17104,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[49,168,40],"tags":[88,389,12,48],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17103"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17103"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17105,"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17103\/revisions\/17105"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}