'Harry Potter: Wizards Unite' AR game news: Release date window has been set

Early promotional image for Niantic Labs' upcoming AR mobile game, "Harry Potter: Wizards Unite" Niantic Labs

Just a few months ago, Niantic was proud to announce that a new augmented reality (AR) game "Harry Potter: Wizards Unite" would be coming out soon. Given the recent announcement, nobody would have expected that it would get a release just months after the notice, but Niantic has said that they hope it gets released within 2018.

The Niantic CEO, John Hanke, provided more details about the new game in an interview with Financial Times, as per Comicbook.com. According to him, this new AR game should be out in the second half of 2018. Although given "Pokemon GO's" rise and fall throughout the nearly two years into its release, fans understandably have doubts about it.

Hanke fortunately already acknowledges this saying that the release of their new AR game will go much smoother than "Pokemon GO" because Niantic is now "much better positioned. He credits this for the company being able to learn from the mistakes they had for "Pokemon GO." Anyone who has played it would know that there is definitely a lot they could improve on.

If it is any consolation, the fast development of the game could reflect this. Since it is an AR game requiring players, or rather "muggles", to go to places, unwanted accidents may happen as "Pokemon GO" had already shown. Hanke has also addressed this issue.

"In terms of dealing with public locations, government policy, regulations and public reaction to people being out in the real world, we have built up our expertise there," said Hanke. Although this would not be fully accident-proof and issues may still arise, they at least come prepared for when these happen.

For now, fans would not be able to put that to the test just yet until the game gets released.

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