After several months of waiting, fans finally have a release date for the highly-anticipated Wizarding World RPG Hogwarts Legacy.Posting to its official Twitter account, Hogwarts Legacy revealed it would release later than previously thought. Although the developers gave a Holiday 2022 release window in a trailer in March, Hogwarts Legacy will now launch on Feb. 10, 2023, for PlayStation, Xbox and PC -- though it did not specify if the consoles would be next-gen only. A Nintendo Switch release will come at a later date. According to the developers, the later release date is due to needing "a little more time to deliver the best possible game experience."
A recent leak suggested Hogwarts Legacy's release date might come sometime in December. The Amazon UK listing for its companion book, The Art and Making of Hogwarts Legacy: Exploring the Unwritten Wizarding World, changed its release date from the placeholder of Dec. 31, 2022, to Dec. 6. Fans speculated the change occurred because the game would now launch on that date, which fell in line with the previously established release window.
The delay sets the game back a few months past its initial release window of Holiday 2022, which Hogwarts Legacy announced in a 15-minute gameplay reveal. Along with the now scrapped release window, Hogwarts Legacy unveiled several features fans can eagerly anticipate, such as attending classes, growing their own magical plants, interacting with fantastic beasts and exploring key environments around the school.
Hogwarts Legacy's Not-So-Magical Reception
Despite some fan excitement for the game, it hasn't been without its controversies. Many fans expressed trepidation at the likely involvement of Harry Potter writer J.K. Rowling due to her transphobic comments in the last few years. Developer Warner Bros. Games confirmed Rowling had no involvement in the project despite being the creator of the world. The company also confirmed that players would be able to create transgender characters in Hogwarts Legacy, further distancing itself from the author.
Despite distancing itself from Rowling, the game's trailer garnered its own controversy for the plot of the game. According to the trailer, goblins appear to be the main villains. Most fans of the books acknowledge that the goblins in Harry Potter are a blatant anti-Semitic representation of the Jewish people, featuring traits often attributed to them in old, racist cartoons and other media. These traits, coupled with their status as second-class citizens in the Wizarding World, led to heavy criticism.
Hogwarts Legacy launches PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One Feb. 10, 2023, with a Nintendo Switch release yet to be determined.
Source: Twitter