We all know that in recent years, there have been a lot of Harry Potter-related theme games, such as the card game Harry Potter: Magical Awakening, which has been launched, and Hogwarts: Legacy, which is expected to be launched in 2022, which is an immersive open-world ARPG game that will land on multiple platforms. In fact, as early as 20 years ago, EA had hoped to launch a Harry Potter MMORPG!
The harry potter and philosopher's stone novel, the first in the Harry Potter series, quickly swept the world in 1997, and the film adaptation of the novel has become a classic in the minds of fans, and even extended the "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" prequel series after the end, which shows that the Harry Potter IP still has a huge influence to this day!
However, "Kim Salzer", who served as the marketing director of EA between 2000 and 2003, broke the news in an interview with the media: during her tenure at EA, the EA executives cut a Harry Potter massively multiplayer online game project, and the reason why the project was stillborn was that the EA executives did not think that the Harry Potter IP could become popular. Given the current situation, the above reasons seem ironic and funny!
When the host asked Kim Salzer if she had ever encountered a work that had invested a lot of enthusiasm in it during her tenure at EA, but ultimately failed to come out, she pointed out a Harry Potter-themed MMORPG and said: "The team has done a lot of research for this game, and even made a beta version"! "Kim Salzer" even came up with some ideas for online and offline interaction, such as sending letters to children offline as a reward or medal.
The development team was confident at the time, and they felt that such a product could challenge the then leader of MMORPG, World of Warcraft, but EA's senior management stifled the project according to their own experience. In fact, there are many reasons why the project has been cut, and it is acceptable for no one to have no money, but what makes "Kim Salzer" grumpy is that the reason why the Harry Potter MMORPG has been cut is that the executives do not think that the Harry Potter IP can become popular (the project is made, maybe the IP is not hot).
Nowadays, "Kim Salzer" is justified, but the doctor also understands the so-called high-level business considerations, after all, there are still many short-lived IP. EA can't say anything now, and it's too late to reboot the Harry Potter online game, because the copyright has already returned to Warner Bros.
The Doctor felt that if the project had been successfully developed and launched at that time, it would have been possible to challenge World of Warcraft, but it would have been possible to become an MMORPG that was no less popular than Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and it could continue to introduce new content as novels and movies developed. Today, we can only look forward to Hogwarts: Legacy, and hopefully it won't disappoint.