Hogwarts Legacy is a big deal for Harry Potter fans. The community craves games where they can make their own Hogwarts student and learn the ways of magic from some of their favorite characters. Hogwarts Legacy is one of the best incarnations of that wish to date. Its unique premise of exploring Hogwarts in the late 1800s and unraveling its secrets as the player's original character opens up a lot of possibilities. For all these reasons, it once seemed poised to be one of 2021's most watched games. However, due to its delay at the start of the year, it won't be until 2022 that the game industry sees what kind of impact Hogwarts Legacy will make.
The delay is certainly disappointing for hardcore Harry Potter fans who want to jump on the game as soon as possible. 2022 is a long way away, and Avalanche Software has yet to share a more specific window within 2022 that the game will release in, so it could be a full year or more before it's out. However, the delay shouldn't dishearten Hogwarts Legacy fans too much. There's a lot that the game can get out of a longer development. Ultimately, one more year's wait for a game like Hogwarts Legacy won't add that much to the amount of time that fans have already spent waiting.
One Year Longer
There's been no shortage of Harry Potter video games in the past. Lots of developers have taken cracks at video game adaptation of the Harry Potter books and movies. The fantasy franchise lends itself well to all these kinds of adaptations and interpretations. However, developers haven't really focused on turning the spotlight away from Harry himself and giving players new characters to play as. Hogwarts Legacy's wish fulfillment is long overdue, but that doesn't mean the delay is a bad thing. Frankly, it's good for the community just to know that Hogwarts Legacy is on the way, and that it's doing so many of the things fans have been asking for in a Harry Potter video game.
A long term delay will certainly ask a lot more patience of fans, but they'll be rewarded for the wait. After all, it's worth examining the sheer scale of Hogwarts Legacy's delay and what it means for the game's state of development. The delay was announced in January 2021, meaning the developers knew they wanted at least another full year to work on the game. That means that Hogwarts Legacy probably really needs all this extra time. Fans wouldn't want Hogwarts Legacy to be a buggy, unpolished mess released in a hurry to appease them. The Hogwarts Legacy that comes out in 2022 will probably be leagues better than the potential 2021 version of the game would've been.
Getting Hogwarts Legacy's Footing
It also has to be said that Hogwarts Legacy has to find a way to prove itself to its doubters. It's faced a lot of backlash in the last few months. Its former lead designer, Troy Leavitt, received widespread criticism after his past of controversial political commentary on YouTube surfaced. Additionally, Hogwarts Legacy's relationship with Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling and her history of anti-transgender statements still makes many potential fans uneasy. Hogwarts Legacy's delay might be necessary partially as a way for the game to do some soul-searching and figure out how to balance between winning over the Harry Potter audience and avoiding the ire of the Wizarding World's creator.
It's already interesting to see how Hogwarts Legacy stands out in so many ways compared to previous Harry Potter media. The distant time period, the implied absence of recognizable Harry Potter characters, and the introduction of a transgender-affirmative character creator make Hogwarts Legacy an impressive black sheep of Harry Potter content. It's no surprise, then, that so many people are so eager to see what the final product looks like. The delay is unfortunate, but it's really not a bad thing. It'll go a long way to making the game what it's meant to be, and it'll help the game get itself back on track after several jarring bumps in the road.
Hogwarts Legacy is releases in 2022 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
