Just over a yr after Harry Potter: Magic Awakened launched internationally, writer Warner Bros has introduced that the sport shall be shut down within the Americas, Europe, and Oceania in October.
Harry Potter: Magic Awakened took a twisting path to get to PC. It launched in China and Taiwan in 2021 on cell units, after which went international in July 2023, together with on Windows—though the servers for the PC model had been restricted to Southeast Asia.
That does not actually seem to be a deal-breaker—I downloaded the official PC consumer earlier in the present day to see what it was like, and the sport ran advantageous—besides that NetEase and Warner run their very own separate account techniques: You can’t hyperlink a WB-operated cell account (which is what you are utilizing in the event you’re situated outdoors of Asia) to a NetEase-operated PC account.
It all appears unnecessarily sophisticated, however it does not matter now. In June 2023 Warner mentioned it was “finalizing the event of a PC model of Harry Potter: Magic Awakened and can share extra particulars on its launch when obtainable,” however now that is all off the desk.
“The time has come for Harry Potter: Magic Awakened to formally shut its servers within the Americas, Europe and Oceania territories on October 29, 2024,” a shutdown message at magicawakened.com states. ”The recreation will proceed to be obtainable for gamers in Asia, together with Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, in addition to different choose Asia and MENA territories.”
Harry Potter: Magic Awakened has already been faraway from the App Store and Google Play, and in-game purchases are now not obtainable. The recreation itself will proceed to run as regular till October 29.
But there could also be an out, for PC gamers no less than. Warner’s magicawakened.com web site does not have a lot happening, however in the event you pop over to harrypottermagicawakened.com you may discover rather more detailed details about the sport and a working hyperlink to the PC consumer. Because its servers are run by NetEase, they will presumably proceed to function.
Some gamers on Reddit are musing about switching over to NetEase servers, however that is broadly seen as an imperfect answer as a result of it means an entire lack of progress earned to this point. Due to separate account techniques, characters and gadgets—a few of which price some huge cash—won’t switch over. An optimistic few are holding out hope that NetEase will open no less than just a few servers in North America and Europe, however that does not appear probably; a much more widespread response amongst gamers is, properly, you may say not very Potter-like:
The failure of Harry Potter: Magic Awakened stands in sharp distinction to Hogwarts Legacy, the sport Warner trumpeted in the beginning of 2024 as “the best-selling recreation of the yr in your complete business worldwide.” But Warner’s been in one thing of a freefall since then: Ironically, the studio mentioned in March that after the disastrous flop of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, it needed to extend its concentrate on “cell and multi-platform free-to-play” video games, with specific emphasis on its 4 core franchises: Mortal Kombat, Game of Thrones, DC, and Harry Potter. And but right here we have now precisely that—a cell and PC free-to-play Harry Potter recreation that, primarily based on my only a few minutes of enjoying with it, appeared like a passably first rate wizarding expertise—and WB is pulling the plug after a yr. I suppose there are not any certain issues in any case.
I’ve reached out to Warner Bros and NetEase for extra info on the Harry Potter: Magic Awakened shutdown, and whether or not it should stay playable on PC through SEA servers, and can replace if I obtain a reply.
