Niantic Labs has enjoyed enormous success by taking on Nintendo's popular "Pokemon" franchise to produce "Pokemon Go." This time around, the mobile gaming app creator now has its eyes fixed on the magical world of "Harry Potter," revealing that the augmented reality (AR) game called "Harry Potter: Wizards Unite" is set to be released in 2018.
Just like Niantic Labs' "Pokemon Go," "Harry Potter: Wizards Unite" will let the players have an AR experience while exploring the mythos of J.K. Rowling's worldwide phenomenon. As reported by GameSpot, "Wizards Unite" will let the players begin their journey in the world of witchcraft and wizardy. With the right mix of reality and digital fantasy, "Wizards Unite" will include magical power-ups to be collected by players, as well as defending locations based on the fictional places in "Harry Potter" books and films.
"Harry Potter: Wizards Unite" AR game will be an immersive experience inside the wizarding world, where players can learn spells and cast them according to their needs, exploring their real-world neighborhood transformed into a magical location, and fight legendary beasts and dark wizards. Players can group together in order to defeat the enemies.
Niantic Labs said that the development of "Harry Potter: Wizards Unite" will not be possible without "Pokemon Go," which has brought in huge income for the company since its launch in 2016.
"We're incredibly excited to announce this next step in the evolution of AR mobile entertainment. With Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, players that have been dreaming of becoming real life Wizards will finally get the chance to experience J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World," Niantic Labs said in their website.
According to The Verge, "Harry Potter: Wizards Unite" will be based on the first AR mobile game popularized by Niantic Labs, "Ingress." People can roam around their own vicinity for a magical experience, similar to what "Pokemon Go" players do in their real-world location to hunt down pocket monsters.
To note, a similar AR gaming app based on the "Harry Potter" novels was already developed. The game called "Maguss" is now on its early alpha stage, although it was not granted any rights to use the same elements found in the "Harry Potter" universe.
