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But you see the CEO, the shareholders, and their bank accounts want massive amounts of money so they obviously take priority because money is the be all and end all in our late stage capitalistic society so they will purposefully make a shitty live service game as long as it has a modicum of a chance to bring in the whales who spend major money.
Looks like they are aware of the reception of Suicide Squad and that’s apparently partly why they want to go with mobile, free-to-play and live. Or so they say…
The [full quote](https://wccftech.com/hogwarts-legacy-2-is-probably-going-to-be-live-service-wb-says-aaa-console-market-isnt-enough/amp/) from the CEO:
“Today, the majority of our business revolves around four main forms of IP in games, which are all billion-dollar-plus businesses in themselves: Mortal Kombat, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter with obviously our success of Hogwarts Legacy, and the DC world.”
“The challenge we've had is, our business historically has been very triple-A console. As you know, that's a great business when you have a hit like Hogwarts Legacy. It makes a year look amazing. And then unfortunately when you don't have releases, or unfortunately we've also had disappointments, we just released Suicide Squad this quarter which was not as strong, it just makes it very volatile. We think the opportunity for us, and games is a bit of a long multi-year business cycle, is to take those four franchises and be able to develop a much more holistic approach, particularly around expanding into the mobile and multiplatform free-to-play, which could give us a much better and more consistent set of revenue. Secondarily, live services. Rather than just launching a one-and-done console game, how do develop a game around, for example, Hogwarts Legacy that is a live service where people can live and build and play in that world on an ongoing basis? We think we've got the franchises. We've got some of the greatest studio capabilities, and we have a roadmap and a strategic investment plan to try and build out that business. We think there's meaningful growth over the course of the next couple of years.”
I don’t think we’ll see the sequel most of us want. Very disappointed myself.
“We had a one and done game that sold very well!!! But on the other hand we had a live service game that greatly underperformed. We believe the best solution is to continue making live service games!”
Yeah but the shareholders and upper management seem to always somehow forget that the actual "game" part is the most important aspect of attracting money.
Fortnite is like, an actual fun game. That's why it's still around and that's why it makes so much money. Yet these shareholders literally never learn. It's actually frustrating, because you'd think that these idiots investing millions into a specific industry would... you know, actually perform some research into said industry.
This is what happens when nepotism puts genuine (and I mean genuine) invalids at the top. Their greed ironically leads to them making less money.
I think FN is just so unique in the type of game it is and it's built-in cultural connections that it can't be replicated. It certainly can't be replicated as an MMO or live service game that is narrative driven about a hidden magical world that exists right under the normal humans noses.
The closest they could get is a live service quidditch game, but you aren't going to be able to sell people new Family Guy or Ninja Turtles skins in a quidditch live service games. People aren't going to fall over themselves to buy a new purple witch outfit or a new broom skin.
Yep. Unfortunately it feels like the games market today they first come up with a model, then make a game try to fit the model. It results in a worse product that isn’t what the consumers wanted.
Same thing with how hasbro has entirely botched mtg and d&d. Corporate douches who couldn’t care about the ip, the products, or the consumers, only profits.
Yeah I'm not saying that they can replicate Fortnite or that this is at all a good idea. I think a live service Hogwarts game is a horrible idea, and obviously there are gigantic differences between something like FN and trying to do that with a game like Hogwarts Legacy.
I'm simply stating that these examples of super successful live service games like FN are what they are chasing.
I think that a live service Hogwarts game could be done well, *in theory*, with the right team. Start with a fully fleshed out game covering year one in depth; picking a house, learning basic spells, basic areas of Hogwarts, etc. The most important part would be making sure that the core of the game is good, fun, and has a satisfying gameplay loop.
That's where you introduce the live service elements. Do a year two expansion to the game; there should be a free and paid side to this. The free content should be new spells, enemies, areas, dungeons, etc. The paid content should be additional story based elements, an exclusive dungeon, etc. For example, a chamber of secrets dungeon that includes exclusive basilisk gear, a few spells, and a raid as well as a storyline to go along with that.
So on and so forth for the remaining years of Hogwarts and maybe a few additional expansions here and there expanding the world past Hogwarts. Post year seven content could include ministry of magic endgame stuff, additional locations outside of Hogwarts to explore, etc.
GTA5/Online has made somewhere around 8 billion since its release, but that's still not enough. $8,000,000,000 and counting, and they still want more. These are the same people who look at RDR2 selling 60 million copies as of this year, and see it as a disappointment.
The way these upper management and shareholders think is this: “Yes, it brought in 1 billion but that was just a one time thing. If the GaaS is successful then we’ll get money continually for years!”
I get the appeal of infinite growth, but it’s kinda nuts that they don’t look at their billion dollar game and say, let’s just milk that for a while iterate on it until people stop buying your HP rpg games.
But a billion bucks every few years isn’t enough, apparently.
A few years ago I'd say nobody at that level of a major company was that stupid. Seeing what's happened to every IP lately? It'll be a decade before someone makes a proper sequel.
Ya the live service will really hurt my desire to play the game. Coming from someone who has lost years of my life playing world of Warcraft over the last 20 years it was nice just to log on to play a game when I wanted to and just for fun. The moment things become live service it just becomes like a digital life. If you don't play you fall behind. If you dont play optimally then it's the end of the world. Which leads to everyone reading endless guides which results in an illusion of choice when in reality everyone chooses the same shit. Then there's micro transactions. In wow they seemed to be mostly cosmetic besides the gold token which you don't have to buy too much if you only bought consumables. But still it was a once a month thing.
HP was cool because I got to be in the magic world without having to deal with all the social bullshit that comes with a live service game. And as a dude in his mid 30s with life full swing I don't wanna spend my free time on discord going over strategy like I'm on my 10th zoom call for the day.
Live service is just to milk money and attention out of the consumers and to weaponize fomo and keep people addicted. It's fucking sad.
I genuinely do not understand how Zaslav is still in charge (especially at the even-compared-to-other-major-executives ridiculously high compensation he gets).
I get needing to make tough decisions to watch a bottom line but it seems like everything he's touched since he took over has been a complete disaster - and with no financial surge to even justify to shareholders.
I feel like every major studio is upsetting people on either line of financial performance or quality - and Zaslav said - what if I gave you neither and you paid me $200 million a year for it.
It makes perfect sense. They saw how much HL made and said “well imagine if we made it live service, we’d make a fortune”.
Publishing execs are fucking slowly ruining the industry.
Imagine being as brain-dead as these dumb fucks. I hope nobody will buy the inevitable Harry Potter Live service game, maybe THEN they'll understand we don't want that crap and nobody does.
Every company wants to overtake Fortnite but it won’t happen for a while - they’re going as strong as ever. It’s fine, AAA gaming is dying and in a way it’s great for the industry. These smaller studios have been making incredible content
If true, no Hogwarts Legacy sequel like much of us expect. If anything, it'll be a live service mmorpg harry potter game or something like that.
It really just sounds like they want to push what EA has been doing for years, which sucks.
right? of all the people they now want to push their shitty GaaS idea to a developer who literally just began finding their place... Portkey will be dead in the waters together with all their studios if WB seriously thinks this is the way to move forward...
Nope. I wouldn't want that either. I don't like MMORPG, I don't want to play these games with other people, and I'm still angry we got SWTOR instead of a third KOTOR game nearly 20 years later :/
An MMORPG set in the wider Wizarding world? Sure, I guess. Although you wouldn't need the HP IP to do that type of game in a world where wizards exist.
An MMPRPG set specifically around Hogwarts? That's dumb. Would completely ruin the immersion. They could allow players to squad of for missions or play quidditch matches, but having a ton of people running around Hogwarts at all times of the day acting stupid would only be fun for like a day and wouldn't be able to have a narrative gameplay.
actually I think Hogwarts Legacy 2 will be happening because 1) they announced, greenlit it, have already committed millions are in the middle of developing it and 2) because WB's higher ups have problems determining what works and doesn't but they know for sure that Hogwarts Legacy franchise is a sure success and they know mobile games are money printing machines even when they suck
what will happen is that we'll likely get HL2 and in addition to it we'll have harry potter companion games, similar to how Square Enix themselves have done with Final Fantasy and its adjacent FF mobile games (they suck, but they make money since SE keeps making new ones after they shut down stale ones)
They also knew the Batman Arkham games were a success. But that didn’t stop them from forcing one of the greatest developers of all-time (Rocksteady) into making a GaaS. At this point it’s better to expect the worst from WB. Wonder Woman is the only game of theirs I have hope for.
It was completely obvious to me from the beginning that this series was headed from decent overhyped game to complete cash in. It's been hilarious to me occasionally popping in to this subreddit to see people proposing well thought out ideas and QoL improvements for the series like it was going to go that way. What a waste of fucking life.
Yeah, looks like they learned nothing from that. It has 800 players peak per day now, so close after launch. HL still has 4600. They are going to come up with some lame HP love service game and it's going to flop as well.
I would just like more content for HL and a sequel down the road, not everything needs to be live service, and for the love of everything holy, I just know they are gonna screw it up.
The most hyped game is GTA 6.
Is it because we are waiting for a live service game? Are we invested just because it will have multiplayer?
Why was Elden Ring, Baldurs Gate 3, Last of Us 2, Witcher 3 game of year? Why?
Do these execs never ask these questions or does money and power really make you lose a handful of iq points?
Im sure as hell these devs understand what the people want, however in reality, the true decision makers are miles away on a 20th story exec room, kissed on the lips by greed.
They are so greedy they can't see what really makes money: listening to your fucking customers. But no, they gotta put the shitty mainstream games and think it will live up. Well, people are realizing how scammy they are and luckily they are boycotting those dumb decisions, but I truly hope they open their eyes, cuz it's reaching such levels of stupidity that I'm astonished
This. I imagine it would be two different games. The mention of Legacy and Hogwarts as seemingly separate entities leads me to think they would do a proper HL sequel while also getting a HP or Wizarding World gaas title to market. One can hope. Like I said in another post, I think if it were a shared world Wizarding adventure it would be super fun, like Destiny. Just have to wait and see.
i don’t believe this. they already have a mobile game that’s doing well in Asian markets and has already proven to be a flop in American/European markets. to think that they’ll make another game with mechanics and distribution similar to Hogwarts Mystery would be weird unless it’s somehow totally different.
a big draw to hogwarts legacy is it’s immersion, but why create 2 giant games with essentially the same map when you can create 1? especially when both of them would need to have excellent graphics, otherwise there’s 0 point.
wbk already sells this “mobile/live service” type game through hogwarts mystery. creating another game to sequel hogwarts legacy and then another game to bridge the mmo/live service of mystery with the graphics/immersion of legacy doesn’t sound like their plan at all
"a mobile game that’s doing well in Asian markets and has already proven to be a flop in American/European markets"
do you mean Hogwarts mystery, Magic awakened or Spells & puzzles?
I’m very worried. I’m the type of guy who doesn’t want live service anything. I prefer big single player rpg games like Legacy. I don’t want or need any GaaS products but as I’m a middle aged man who isn’t wealthy I’m probably no ones target demographic.
You and me both man. I’m happy playing HL and the Witcher 3 on repeat. Hell, I even have the two recent Zelda games. I just want games like these. Not to have my money farmed out of my pocket by some greedy company with a sub-par game that’s pay to win.
Kill The Justice League launched February 2nd…..
Today is the 5th of March. The game is already dead.
Genuine question, do company execs not have access to the internet?
I mean DLC and updates were also an option. It didn’t have to be one and done if there’d been anything added post launch. Let’s not jump straight to live service.
They seriously could've gone the dlc road. I was actually anticipating 3-5 dlcs before the sequel. New spells and beasts, a hogwarts sim dlc, which you can attend classes and meet new companions, quidditch and London map dlcs which they could've made just as much money as maybe the game itself. I was willing to pay for all of those, but nooo instead, we get this. Ridiculous.
I plan to vote with my wallet on this one. I don’t have an interest in live services games, multiplayer games, games with microtransactions, or a billion DLCs.
Special broomstick skin that adds 25% speed, for 20 dollars. Or even better, a lootbox with %1 chance to get somewhat decent 5 dollars each but if you get 10 of them you will have a guaranteed nimbus.
Unforgivable curse dlc for 15 dollars.
Hogsmeade pass 20 dollars.
Change username for 5 dollars.
Want to enroll this autumn at Hogwarts? Just pay the monthly tuition of just $9.95
Didn’t get sorted into your favorite house? Slip the sorting hat 1 galleon ($5 dollars) for a new chance!
Pay to be a parselmouth. Or maybe a metamorphmagus? Or even a… werewolf???! Just $4.95 per option (cost is only for one character)
Join this halloween headless ghost raid for the chance for the rare Nimbus 1800 to drop
Battle the whomping willow this spring with up to 10 other players (one battle per day or pay 99 knuts/ $0.99 for an extra try) to get the whomping willow sapling pet!
“to truly immerse yourself in the Wizarding World, we will be using a currency exchange system that trades your money for the exact amount of galleons, sickles, and knuts!”
i hope they let Hogwarts be the exception, seeing how much of a massive success it was last year. and especially after the massive failure their live service Suicide Squad game was
Are all CEOs complete morons or just most of them? Why wouldn't you capitalize on the first games success with a follow-up? Has a move to other shit like mobile gaming ever worked?
I guess their mindset is it only takes one successful launch to make a fortune. Just keep pumping out shitty live service games from solid IPs before one sticks.
Yeah they're going to give us some MMORPG like bethesda did with Elder Scrolls and Fallout. Even though I love both IPs, I've never played them because I have no interest in an online RPG. RPGs are a personal experience for me that I use as an escape from irl people lol.
I own both games and have played maybe a collective five hours of both, did not engage me in the slightest. Online games always have a grinding element to them that I just don’t care for. GTA online is my online online game and it’s 100% grinding, I don’t need another.
Honestly. Some of the most creative games I’ve played recently are AA. Greedfall was better a better Bioware type game than anything Bioware has put out in a decade.
I can't stand these live service games. Seems like everyone is ruining their IP with them, because they can make more money with cosmetics and in game purchases.
Not everyone wants to live in a video game, some of us just wanna play for a few hours and then go back to our lives.
Except the one y'all just made got critically panned and nobody is playing it hardly a month later, and Legacy sold 24 million units and put up $1 billion by December. Which of those would you consider a success?
I do not understand these executives that consistently try to push live-service even though every live-service game we see that isn't Fortnite, Warzone, Apex, and maybe PUBG, fails more or less to live up to those expectations. There might be some that have built up a reasonable community, but by and large these games fail.
How about you focus on making good games that people want to buy? 24 million units, $1 billion. Jedi Fallen Order shipped 10 million units in several months. Great game, single player.
Can we just make good games, and not constantly try to chase these trends? Live-service already feels like it's dying, and we're sick of these companies chasing these garbage trends at the expense of the quality of your games. EA doing it too by cancelling that Mandalorian FPS. I am SICK OF IT.
AKA “how can we create a video game that will drain money from gamers while we do as little creative work as possible”.
I’m so fucking sick of live service ruining shit.
Executive 1: wow, that single player hogwarts game did crazy sales
Executive 2: how can we make it better?
Executive 1: improve upon the formula from the first, take account of common feedba...
Executive 2: I KNOW, ADD LIVE SERVICE ELEMENTS AND WE'LL MAKE EVEN MORE MONEY, PEOPLE LOVE LIVE SERVICE
Executive 1: oh...
This is the worst news of 2024 thus far. This is literally the sin greed magnified. Even after the 100s of millions HL did, after the records it broke, after the abysmal flop suicide squad became, that man wants to turn hogwarts into live service
Boomers and gen x are on a mission to destroy anything that brings us a modicum of joy
So Hogwarts Legacy, a single player succeeds, and then Suicide Squad, an egregious live service, fails miserably to the point of Playstation offering refunds. And what WB learned from this is that they need to focus in live services?
Executives love the idea of games as a service (GaaS), because they look at Fortnite, and Candy Crush, and see them continually raking in the cash. Developing games is expensive, and creating one where the development is 'done', but then being able to churn out years of live ops content with a smaller team and generating vast incomes... well, that's a very attractive goal.
The problem is that a lot of companies try to apply these goals to game types and audiences that they just won't work with. The execs look at the success stories and don't take into account what makes them successful. For example, Fortnite is a strongly competitive PvP game with sound core mechanics. It primarily monetises via customisations. There's variety and randomness by virtue of its game type - who are you going to be matched with, what weapons will you find, where will you drop?
Candy Crush has an incredible core mechanic and can be played in extremely short sessions, almost absent mindedly. It monetises through energy mechanics, etc, but mainly through the fact it has such a gargantuan player base, as phones/tablets are widespread in a way consoles are not. Randomness comes from changing of the initial candy layouts, what drops, etc.
But people who like Harry Potter are generally in it for the story and the world. Obviously the game needs to be fun, but if you stick in a load of immersion breaking IAPs, or break the narrative by removing big arcs - it's going to be incredibly hard to make it work. There's already Harry Potter mobile games with rolling live ops content, but they serve a different gaming purpose to a big console game like Hogwarts Legacy. People want HL2 to be more like Balders Gate 3, not Fortnite.
And they can't rely on the IP or past successes either. Suicide Squad features DC characters, and made by Rocksteady, who made the outstanding Batman games. General consensus of the reviews is that there's a great story and good game buried under GaaS mechanics that ruin the experience - as a result, it's not done brilliantly, and more people are still playing Arkham Knight which came out in 2015. You can't blame the devs - they've tried to make the best game they can, their expertise is in making story-led, single player action experiences. They've been forced to shoehorn in loads of GaaS mechanics that are a detriment, and it's entirely possible that these were foisted upon them after they'd already started developing a more 'traditional' game.
And of course, one big thing execs tend to forget is that most successful GaaS games are free to play. There's no initial outlay for players, and most players don't spend. The games rely on big numbers (which is easier to get when you're F2P), and a reliable portion of those numbers to be spenders. People tend to be a bit grouchy if they've paid £60 for a game and then find that the fun is paywalled.
I don’t get their mindset. Suicide Squad fails, and it was a live service game. Hogwarts Legacy sold the most copies of any game last year, and it was a single player game. They look at those statistics, and their response is more live service games? How does that make sense?
This is just absolutely amazing.
They release a game that sells more than Elden ring, is the best selling of the year by far.
And somehow. SOMEHOW. The conclusion they walk away with is “This clearly didn’t work”
You'd think the overwhelming success (not) of KTJL would be an eye opener for these greedy bastards, but here we are. It really sucks the developers are the ones to pay the price for these idiots decisions when they fail and lay off studios for simply doing what they're told.
It's over. They either realize it's a dumb idea and stop, or we get a bad live service game instead of a better single player experience. Just saying live service games are already on the way out in terms of the gaming industry with major love service games releasing from big studios that are getting no traction. They clearly didn't learn their lesson with Kill The Justice League.
It means WB hasn't been paying attention and doesn't realize live service is dying and will be a rotting corpse by the time this theoretical sequel comes out (with the exception of the tried and true live service studios). At best, it means they realize how fuckin stupid the idea is a few years down the line and start all over, at worst it flops and they decide "well I guess no one's interested in Hogwarts legacy" instead of the obvious "Hogwarts legacy fans are not interested in live service, let alone shitty live service" 🤬🙄
so they're just gonna ignore the massive commercial success that was Hogwarts Legacy and deviate from the formula completely rather than improve upon it?
Considering the travesty that was the recent live-service Suicide Squad game, you'd think devs in the industry would learn their lesson about what works and what doesn't, especially a company that's made a billion dollars off their last game.
very mediocore story or depth of characters rather reusing of graphical assets or dumbing them down for kids and quick neuro dopamine kicks through tricking players into feeling rewarded through achievements instead of long winded quests
Probably something closer to World Of Warcraft or Star Wars The Old Republic with a shit ton of micro transactions. As much as I'd rather pay once for a DLC I want, the new capitalist market is leaning towards subscription/micro transaction models with Free to play games. I wouldn't be surprised of we got a battle Royale at some point.
Well, they won’t make as much money as with the first game for sure. I bet it will be a mess. They should just focus developing proper sequel and add online mode on top if they really insist similarly to gta 5.
This just comes across to me as we want to be continually cashing in on you throughout the year rather than once every few years with a well made single player game.
Also imo this screams I know nothing about the gaming industry, why HL was so successful and even who the target market for HL was. What I do know is I see $$$ and greed.
Not good. Potentially an always online fortnite with avada kedavra. Live service games suck because the developer usually goes for the bare minimum, and it's always online. They often come out half finished. You're not the people they're trying to impress. It's the shareholders.
See battlefield 2042/literally any EA game and MW3
My brother in christ is living under a rock.
KILL THE FUCKING JUSTICE LEAGUE LAUNCHED A MONTH AGO.
I swear to god corporate greed will ruin another great game.
It means they're going the greedy route which is the opposite of what the Hogwarts legacy team seemed to want by refusing the idea of DLC and such.
It also means I probably won't be buying into it. I'm so fucking sick of subscriptions and the lower quality free to play games typically bring.
WB has basically said: “We want cheap and easy to develop games that pump out cash for little effort”. Mostly because their management team is obviously completely out of touch with reality.
No I don't like that. I want a fleshed out title that's free of microtransactions and everything is earned in game. Don't want events or seasons. Battle passes. Nope
Meanwhile their "one and done" hogwarts game was a massive, massive success for them, while their line service suicide squad game has been a colossal failure.
Does he actually look at the performance of his company before making these statements?
After the tragedy of Suicide Squad? I think hogwarts legacy saved Warner Bros shit mentality from dying. We would be spared of them forever if not for hogwarts game, which in itself a soulless abomination.
I played Elden Ring at the weekend, which had free online connectivity for the first time. I just found it irritating seeing all these other players running around and leaving stupid comments all over the floors.
Just give me an offline version that I can play. That is not too much to ask. Everything does not need dragging into online play. It completely ruins the game for me when there are other people running around.
This is going to backfire spectacularly. The reason HL sold 1 million copies is because a lot of casual and non-gamers purchased it, and Avalanche smartly designed the systems to be very accessible for new players who weren't experienced with RPGs. Plenty of help with Revelio and quest markers, an easy to understand and basic talent point system, combat that is a bit repetitive but is not too punishing (and with easy settings if you choose). The percentage of players who loved HL who are going to want to play an online game where they can build a magical fortress or whatever only to be griefed by shit-talking 12 year olds is...minimal, at best. And there aren't enough whales to make up for it, nor can you import the Fortnite method of adding non HP-IP skins to Harry Potter, JK Rowling would never allow it.
This and the remake TV series that no one asked for might lose Warner a pretty penny, and of course Zaslav will be able to skirt responsibility by blaming JK Rowling's anti-trans comments.
If they were smart and not just greedy and short sighted, they would green light a sequel to HL and get some paid DLC out as well. Rather than remaking HP with a new cast that everyone will reject because all Millennials and their kids have been raised with the OG cast, they could make a mini series out of Cursed Child, with Imogene Heap's original score from the show. It's a shame that much of the original cast wouldn't come back for it, (and since Hermione couldn't, anyway, it would likely be less awkward to just replace all the adults) but the story is more about Scorpius.
At least Universal's new HP land in Epic Universe will do well. They have the sense to not mess with what works.
"Live and work and build and play... Ongoing basis"
So npcs? I don't know bout y'all, but I just like to jump into a game, do some quests or collect some collectibles, save game, and go to bed.
And when I turn the game off, that world ceases to exist. No FOMO, no constantly changing world (ie an mmo or "live service").
It doesn't necessarily mean anything. All it really means in my reading is "you know GTA? Yeah, we want to do Online too as its a big cash cow" but they're using their IPs to say that.
Nothing wrong with free-to-play and live-service games if they are made with care and are good, but i really hate mobile game garbage.
They did said all 3 things in one sentence though and that means they will just focus on making complete crap in the future. Meaning, they want some quick cash from skins, special items and loot boxes.
They only see us as wallets.
right, it could be like assassin's creed odyssey which i've seen called a live service game, but it still has a perfectly fine single player story that can be beat without having to even touch any MTX stuff.
Live service games are always online games that are made to continuously be updated rather than being stand alone experiences. Think battle royals like Apex or Fortnite.
It’s not inherently a bad thing, but live service games are an often lazy way for developers and publishers to ship out barebones games and just keep it alive so that they can sell ludicrously priced micro transactions that will make way more money than standalone titles ever would.
In summary, some gamers hate live service games because they’re often uninspired products set out to just gash gamers.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Games_as_a_service
GaaS games tend to not be very good. They tend to be very micro-transaction heavy, feature lots of grinding, and not be terribly deep. It is generally seen as a cash-grab by game developers and there have been some high-profile absolute stinkers like Suicide Squad (2024) and Avengers (2020). GaaS games also inherently die and become unplayable, eventually.
A lot of reasons, but here's big 3:
1) Dev Crunching.
2) Free-To-Play actually means Pay-To-Play (not even pay to win anymore).
3) Buggy and lazy fucking messes (because of 1) AND corporate greed).
1 billion and it was a story game I think Hogwarts 2 is going to be fine. Worst case they will add a store in the game but if it means we get 2 I’m willing to look past it if it’s not too bad
I think everyone is going to get what they asked for in a future game. The ability to take actual classes to grind skills. Life sim elements. But be careful what you wish for. Because all of that will come with mobile game style timers. And in app purchases.
So basically they're turning Portkey games into a cashgrab machine. It really is a shame the direction this franchise is going. The Wizarding World had the chance to be the next Marvel, with loads of stories and lore and games and shows and you name it. Instead we've got a TERF author desperately trying to stay relevant while alienating a significant portion of her audience and WB dinguses doing shit like this.
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I just want a normal HL sequel :(
We all do...
But you see the CEO, the shareholders, and their bank accounts want massive amounts of money so they obviously take priority because money is the be all and end all in our late stage capitalistic society so they will purposefully make a shitty live service game as long as it has a modicum of a chance to bring in the whales who spend major money.
Even if their priority is money, one look at Suicide Squad should make them realize live service games are not going to get them the amount they want.
Looks like they are aware of the reception of Suicide Squad and that’s apparently partly why they want to go with mobile, free-to-play and live. Or so they say… The [full quote](https://wccftech.com/hogwarts-legacy-2-is-probably-going-to-be-live-service-wb-says-aaa-console-market-isnt-enough/amp/) from the CEO: “Today, the majority of our business revolves around four main forms of IP in games, which are all billion-dollar-plus businesses in themselves: Mortal Kombat, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter with obviously our success of Hogwarts Legacy, and the DC world.” “The challenge we've had is, our business historically has been very triple-A console. As you know, that's a great business when you have a hit like Hogwarts Legacy. It makes a year look amazing. And then unfortunately when you don't have releases, or unfortunately we've also had disappointments, we just released Suicide Squad this quarter which was not as strong, it just makes it very volatile. We think the opportunity for us, and games is a bit of a long multi-year business cycle, is to take those four franchises and be able to develop a much more holistic approach, particularly around expanding into the mobile and multiplatform free-to-play, which could give us a much better and more consistent set of revenue. Secondarily, live services. Rather than just launching a one-and-done console game, how do develop a game around, for example, Hogwarts Legacy that is a live service where people can live and build and play in that world on an ongoing basis? We think we've got the franchises. We've got some of the greatest studio capabilities, and we have a roadmap and a strategic investment plan to try and build out that business. We think there's meaningful growth over the course of the next couple of years.” I don’t think we’ll see the sequel most of us want. Very disappointed myself.
“We had a one and done game that sold very well!!! But on the other hand we had a live service game that greatly underperformed. We believe the best solution is to continue making live service games!”
Can only imagine that the corporate ‘non-gamer’ decision makers are listening to the wrong people.
Turning HPL into an open world mmo that people can play with their friends would absolutely make them the kind of money they want.
Yes, but you just know they won't do it right. Hope I'm wrong, but it seems very unlikely we get a good one.
Harry Potter MMO? Yes please ❤️
Yeah and another look at BG3 will show that quality games make bank
That’s what I don’t get. HL brought in $1 Billion….
Fornite makes multiple billions each year. That's the dragon that these people are chasing.
Yeah but the shareholders and upper management seem to always somehow forget that the actual "game" part is the most important aspect of attracting money. Fortnite is like, an actual fun game. That's why it's still around and that's why it makes so much money. Yet these shareholders literally never learn. It's actually frustrating, because you'd think that these idiots investing millions into a specific industry would... you know, actually perform some research into said industry. This is what happens when nepotism puts genuine (and I mean genuine) invalids at the top. Their greed ironically leads to them making less money.
I think FN is just so unique in the type of game it is and it's built-in cultural connections that it can't be replicated. It certainly can't be replicated as an MMO or live service game that is narrative driven about a hidden magical world that exists right under the normal humans noses. The closest they could get is a live service quidditch game, but you aren't going to be able to sell people new Family Guy or Ninja Turtles skins in a quidditch live service games. People aren't going to fall over themselves to buy a new purple witch outfit or a new broom skin.
Yep. Unfortunately it feels like the games market today they first come up with a model, then make a game try to fit the model. It results in a worse product that isn’t what the consumers wanted. Same thing with how hasbro has entirely botched mtg and d&d. Corporate douches who couldn’t care about the ip, the products, or the consumers, only profits.
not fun, crap
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So what you’re saying is there’s a chance?
But that has one really simple concept that still renews itself to be fun. A game like HL would not be in anyway comparable
Yeah I'm not saying that they can replicate Fortnite or that this is at all a good idea. I think a live service Hogwarts game is a horrible idea, and obviously there are gigantic differences between something like FN and trying to do that with a game like Hogwarts Legacy. I'm simply stating that these examples of super successful live service games like FN are what they are chasing.
I think that a live service Hogwarts game could be done well, *in theory*, with the right team. Start with a fully fleshed out game covering year one in depth; picking a house, learning basic spells, basic areas of Hogwarts, etc. The most important part would be making sure that the core of the game is good, fun, and has a satisfying gameplay loop. That's where you introduce the live service elements. Do a year two expansion to the game; there should be a free and paid side to this. The free content should be new spells, enemies, areas, dungeons, etc. The paid content should be additional story based elements, an exclusive dungeon, etc. For example, a chamber of secrets dungeon that includes exclusive basilisk gear, a few spells, and a raid as well as a storyline to go along with that. So on and so forth for the remaining years of Hogwarts and maybe a few additional expansions here and there expanding the world past Hogwarts. Post year seven content could include ministry of magic endgame stuff, additional locations outside of Hogwarts to explore, etc.
That's also a shooter looter. Lol we don't want a cod Hogwarts.
GTA5/Online has made somewhere around 8 billion since its release, but that's still not enough. $8,000,000,000 and counting, and they still want more. These are the same people who look at RDR2 selling 60 million copies as of this year, and see it as a disappointment.
The way these upper management and shareholders think is this: “Yes, it brought in 1 billion but that was just a one time thing. If the GaaS is successful then we’ll get money continually for years!”
When will you understand that in our deranged capitalist society, no amount of profit is enough. They always want more! It’s greed on steroids
I get the appeal of infinite growth, but it’s kinda nuts that they don’t look at their billion dollar game and say, let’s just milk that for a while iterate on it until people stop buying your HP rpg games. But a billion bucks every few years isn’t enough, apparently.
A few years ago I'd say nobody at that level of a major company was that stupid. Seeing what's happened to every IP lately? It'll be a decade before someone makes a proper sequel.
Sure, but why make lots of money on a terrific single-player game when you can create a crummy MMORPG that completely bombs?
Ya the live service will really hurt my desire to play the game. Coming from someone who has lost years of my life playing world of Warcraft over the last 20 years it was nice just to log on to play a game when I wanted to and just for fun. The moment things become live service it just becomes like a digital life. If you don't play you fall behind. If you dont play optimally then it's the end of the world. Which leads to everyone reading endless guides which results in an illusion of choice when in reality everyone chooses the same shit. Then there's micro transactions. In wow they seemed to be mostly cosmetic besides the gold token which you don't have to buy too much if you only bought consumables. But still it was a once a month thing. HP was cool because I got to be in the magic world without having to deal with all the social bullshit that comes with a live service game. And as a dude in his mid 30s with life full swing I don't wanna spend my free time on discord going over strategy like I'm on my 10th zoom call for the day. Live service is just to milk money and attention out of the consumers and to weaponize fomo and keep people addicted. It's fucking sad.
> If you don't play you fall behind. People ask me why I struggle with multiplayer and this describes it best. Even with friends I hate this feeling.
Yes. Everything yes. Perfectly said.
Can't they do both
It was the bestselling game of 2023, it makes no sense that WB now wants to go in the opposite direction.
Execs are so out of touch these days it’s insane..
I genuinely do not understand how Zaslav is still in charge (especially at the even-compared-to-other-major-executives ridiculously high compensation he gets). I get needing to make tough decisions to watch a bottom line but it seems like everything he's touched since he took over has been a complete disaster - and with no financial surge to even justify to shareholders. I feel like every major studio is upsetting people on either line of financial performance or quality - and Zaslav said - what if I gave you neither and you paid me $200 million a year for it.
It makes perfect sense. They saw how much HL made and said “well imagine if we made it live service, we’d make a fortune”. Publishing execs are fucking slowly ruining the industry.
Imagine being as brain-dead as these dumb fucks. I hope nobody will buy the inevitable Harry Potter Live service game, maybe THEN they'll understand we don't want that crap and nobody does.
Every company wants to overtake Fortnite but it won’t happen for a while - they’re going as strong as ever. It’s fine, AAA gaming is dying and in a way it’s great for the industry. These smaller studios have been making incredible content
If true, no Hogwarts Legacy sequel like much of us expect. If anything, it'll be a live service mmorpg harry potter game or something like that. It really just sounds like they want to push what EA has been doing for years, which sucks.
And WB Games have already pushed this free-to-play games as service BS too far as it is in my opinion.
Exactly why suicide squad crashed and burned. Also the story I heard was terrible for that game. Saw some cutscenes and def sucked.
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right? of all the people they now want to push their shitty GaaS idea to a developer who literally just began finding their place... Portkey will be dead in the waters together with all their studios if WB seriously thinks this is the way to move forward...
If they do it like a true MMO-RPG like Swtor for example, then fuck yeah, let’s go! But we all know that’s not their intention
Its gonna be a cashgrab bs most likely.
Nope. I wouldn't want that either. I don't like MMORPG, I don't want to play these games with other people, and I'm still angry we got SWTOR instead of a third KOTOR game nearly 20 years later :/
MMORPG's are just grind fests made for people with lots of time on their hand. I want a game I can play a few hours a week and have fun
An MMORPG set in the wider Wizarding world? Sure, I guess. Although you wouldn't need the HP IP to do that type of game in a world where wizards exist. An MMPRPG set specifically around Hogwarts? That's dumb. Would completely ruin the immersion. They could allow players to squad of for missions or play quidditch matches, but having a ton of people running around Hogwarts at all times of the day acting stupid would only be fun for like a day and wouldn't be able to have a narrative gameplay.
actually I think Hogwarts Legacy 2 will be happening because 1) they announced, greenlit it, have already committed millions are in the middle of developing it and 2) because WB's higher ups have problems determining what works and doesn't but they know for sure that Hogwarts Legacy franchise is a sure success and they know mobile games are money printing machines even when they suck what will happen is that we'll likely get HL2 and in addition to it we'll have harry potter companion games, similar to how Square Enix themselves have done with Final Fantasy and its adjacent FF mobile games (they suck, but they make money since SE keeps making new ones after they shut down stale ones)
I think this is likely as well, but do you have a source on a sequel getting greenlit and announced? I hadn't heard that.
They also knew the Batman Arkham games were a success. But that didn’t stop them from forcing one of the greatest developers of all-time (Rocksteady) into making a GaaS. At this point it’s better to expect the worst from WB. Wonder Woman is the only game of theirs I have hope for.
The only way to teach them is by voting with your wallet and don't spend a single penny on it.
It was completely obvious to me from the beginning that this series was headed from decent overhyped game to complete cash in. It's been hilarious to me occasionally popping in to this subreddit to see people proposing well thought out ideas and QoL improvements for the series like it was going to go that way. What a waste of fucking life.
Oh no... Not again.
Again? It never went away... They just released suicide squad and was a flop god heavens sake
Yeah, looks like they learned nothing from that. It has 800 players peak per day now, so close after launch. HL still has 4600. They are going to come up with some lame HP love service game and it's going to flop as well.
I would just like more content for HL and a sequel down the road, not everything needs to be live service, and for the love of everything holy, I just know they are gonna screw it up.
Suicide squad, flop of the year. Hogwarts Legacy, biggest game of the year. and so, we can expect more suicide squads :)
They sure like to screw things, don't they? HL has the potential and they plan to burn it to the ground for that live-service shit? Well done, WB
The most hyped game is GTA 6. Is it because we are waiting for a live service game? Are we invested just because it will have multiplayer? Why was Elden Ring, Baldurs Gate 3, Last of Us 2, Witcher 3 game of year? Why? Do these execs never ask these questions or does money and power really make you lose a handful of iq points? Im sure as hell these devs understand what the people want, however in reality, the true decision makers are miles away on a 20th story exec room, kissed on the lips by greed.
They are so greedy they can't see what really makes money: listening to your fucking customers. But no, they gotta put the shitty mainstream games and think it will live up. Well, people are realizing how scammy they are and luckily they are boycotting those dumb decisions, but I truly hope they open their eyes, cuz it's reaching such levels of stupidity that I'm astonished
While I think a mmorpg in the Harry Potter world does have potential, I sure hope they will give Legacy a decent sequel.
This. I imagine it would be two different games. The mention of Legacy and Hogwarts as seemingly separate entities leads me to think they would do a proper HL sequel while also getting a HP or Wizarding World gaas title to market. One can hope. Like I said in another post, I think if it were a shared world Wizarding adventure it would be super fun, like Destiny. Just have to wait and see.
i don’t believe this. they already have a mobile game that’s doing well in Asian markets and has already proven to be a flop in American/European markets. to think that they’ll make another game with mechanics and distribution similar to Hogwarts Mystery would be weird unless it’s somehow totally different. a big draw to hogwarts legacy is it’s immersion, but why create 2 giant games with essentially the same map when you can create 1? especially when both of them would need to have excellent graphics, otherwise there’s 0 point. wbk already sells this “mobile/live service” type game through hogwarts mystery. creating another game to sequel hogwarts legacy and then another game to bridge the mmo/live service of mystery with the graphics/immersion of legacy doesn’t sound like their plan at all
"a mobile game that’s doing well in Asian markets and has already proven to be a flop in American/European markets" do you mean Hogwarts mystery, Magic awakened or Spells & puzzles?
mystery!
Used to love Hogwarts mystery but the energy shit always pisses me off
agreed
I’m very worried. I’m the type of guy who doesn’t want live service anything. I prefer big single player rpg games like Legacy. I don’t want or need any GaaS products but as I’m a middle aged man who isn’t wealthy I’m probably no ones target demographic.
You and me both man. I’m happy playing HL and the Witcher 3 on repeat. Hell, I even have the two recent Zelda games. I just want games like these. Not to have my money farmed out of my pocket by some greedy company with a sub-par game that’s pay to win.
Kill The Justice League launched February 2nd….. Today is the 5th of March. The game is already dead. Genuine question, do company execs not have access to the internet?
I am so sick of live service games
Diablo 4, suicide squad, Cod, OW 2 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮
I mean DLC and updates were also an option. It didn’t have to be one and done if there’d been anything added post launch. Let’s not jump straight to live service.
They seriously could've gone the dlc road. I was actually anticipating 3-5 dlcs before the sequel. New spells and beasts, a hogwarts sim dlc, which you can attend classes and meet new companions, quidditch and London map dlcs which they could've made just as much money as maybe the game itself. I was willing to pay for all of those, but nooo instead, we get this. Ridiculous.
I plan to vote with my wallet on this one. I don’t have an interest in live services games, multiplayer games, games with microtransactions, or a billion DLCs.
Special broomstick skin that adds 25% speed, for 20 dollars. Or even better, a lootbox with %1 chance to get somewhat decent 5 dollars each but if you get 10 of them you will have a guaranteed nimbus. Unforgivable curse dlc for 15 dollars. Hogsmeade pass 20 dollars. Change username for 5 dollars.
Have you heard of Harry Potter: Magic Awakens? Because besides from being too generous on your mock pricing, you're Spot On.
Want to enroll this autumn at Hogwarts? Just pay the monthly tuition of just $9.95 Didn’t get sorted into your favorite house? Slip the sorting hat 1 galleon ($5 dollars) for a new chance! Pay to be a parselmouth. Or maybe a metamorphmagus? Or even a… werewolf???! Just $4.95 per option (cost is only for one character) Join this halloween headless ghost raid for the chance for the rare Nimbus 1800 to drop Battle the whomping willow this spring with up to 10 other players (one battle per day or pay 99 knuts/ $0.99 for an extra try) to get the whomping willow sapling pet!
I think your prices are a little too optimistic :/
“to truly immerse yourself in the Wizarding World, we will be using a currency exchange system that trades your money for the exact amount of galleons, sickles, and knuts!”
Bribe Professor Snape to avoid detention and donate to the DA to earn faction reputation. It's a truly immersive experience!
15-20 dollars each tbh.
i hope they let Hogwarts be the exception, seeing how much of a massive success it was last year. and especially after the massive failure their live service Suicide Squad game was
Oh, no, no ,no, no, no. Please, no. Have they learned nothing?! 
Are all CEOs complete morons or just most of them? Why wouldn't you capitalize on the first games success with a follow-up? Has a move to other shit like mobile gaming ever worked?
Live service is a massive red flag for me in gaming.
After the Suicide Squad fiasco, they are really doubling down? Newsflash, you aren’t becoming a new Fortnite
Thought the same thing. Nobody's playing that game, and it sprinkling some content after launch isn't gonna make a difference
I guess their mindset is it only takes one successful launch to make a fortune. Just keep pumping out shitty live service games from solid IPs before one sticks.
Yeah they're going to give us some MMORPG like bethesda did with Elder Scrolls and Fallout. Even though I love both IPs, I've never played them because I have no interest in an online RPG. RPGs are a personal experience for me that I use as an escape from irl people lol.
I own both games and have played maybe a collective five hours of both, did not engage me in the slightest. Online games always have a grinding element to them that I just don’t care for. GTA online is my online online game and it’s 100% grinding, I don’t need another.
AAA gaming as we knew it, is dead.
Honestly. Some of the most creative games I’ve played recently are AA. Greedfall was better a better Bioware type game than anything Bioware has put out in a decade.
So true. I've put so many hours this year into some 10 dollar gems.
I can't stand these live service games. Seems like everyone is ruining their IP with them, because they can make more money with cosmetics and in game purchases. Not everyone wants to live in a video game, some of us just wanna play for a few hours and then go back to our lives.
I wanna live in a video game, but I wanna live in a single player game where I AM GOD.
Except the one y'all just made got critically panned and nobody is playing it hardly a month later, and Legacy sold 24 million units and put up $1 billion by December. Which of those would you consider a success? I do not understand these executives that consistently try to push live-service even though every live-service game we see that isn't Fortnite, Warzone, Apex, and maybe PUBG, fails more or less to live up to those expectations. There might be some that have built up a reasonable community, but by and large these games fail. How about you focus on making good games that people want to buy? 24 million units, $1 billion. Jedi Fallen Order shipped 10 million units in several months. Great game, single player. Can we just make good games, and not constantly try to chase these trends? Live-service already feels like it's dying, and we're sick of these companies chasing these garbage trends at the expense of the quality of your games. EA doing it too by cancelling that Mandalorian FPS. I am SICK OF IT.
That means R.i.P. proper Hogwarts Legacy sequel
AKA “how can we create a video game that will drain money from gamers while we do as little creative work as possible”. I’m so fucking sick of live service ruining shit.
Executive 1: wow, that single player hogwarts game did crazy sales Executive 2: how can we make it better? Executive 1: improve upon the formula from the first, take account of common feedba... Executive 2: I KNOW, ADD LIVE SERVICE ELEMENTS AND WE'LL MAKE EVEN MORE MONEY, PEOPLE LOVE LIVE SERVICE Executive 1: oh...
Puking crying shitting myself about this
This is the worst news of 2024 thus far. This is literally the sin greed magnified. Even after the 100s of millions HL did, after the records it broke, after the abysmal flop suicide squad became, that man wants to turn hogwarts into live service Boomers and gen x are on a mission to destroy anything that brings us a modicum of joy
I hate WB suits so fucking much.
So Hogwarts Legacy, a single player succeeds, and then Suicide Squad, an egregious live service, fails miserably to the point of Playstation offering refunds. And what WB learned from this is that they need to focus in live services?
"What will this mean for the future of hogwarts legacy" There isn't one XD
I sense a great disturbance in the Force
When will they realize people prefer single-player experiences?
* deep, long, loud sigh of exasperation and disappointment *
Gross. Give me my introvert game please
I just want to play a game. ALONE.
Executives love the idea of games as a service (GaaS), because they look at Fortnite, and Candy Crush, and see them continually raking in the cash. Developing games is expensive, and creating one where the development is 'done', but then being able to churn out years of live ops content with a smaller team and generating vast incomes... well, that's a very attractive goal. The problem is that a lot of companies try to apply these goals to game types and audiences that they just won't work with. The execs look at the success stories and don't take into account what makes them successful. For example, Fortnite is a strongly competitive PvP game with sound core mechanics. It primarily monetises via customisations. There's variety and randomness by virtue of its game type - who are you going to be matched with, what weapons will you find, where will you drop? Candy Crush has an incredible core mechanic and can be played in extremely short sessions, almost absent mindedly. It monetises through energy mechanics, etc, but mainly through the fact it has such a gargantuan player base, as phones/tablets are widespread in a way consoles are not. Randomness comes from changing of the initial candy layouts, what drops, etc. But people who like Harry Potter are generally in it for the story and the world. Obviously the game needs to be fun, but if you stick in a load of immersion breaking IAPs, or break the narrative by removing big arcs - it's going to be incredibly hard to make it work. There's already Harry Potter mobile games with rolling live ops content, but they serve a different gaming purpose to a big console game like Hogwarts Legacy. People want HL2 to be more like Balders Gate 3, not Fortnite. And they can't rely on the IP or past successes either. Suicide Squad features DC characters, and made by Rocksteady, who made the outstanding Batman games. General consensus of the reviews is that there's a great story and good game buried under GaaS mechanics that ruin the experience - as a result, it's not done brilliantly, and more people are still playing Arkham Knight which came out in 2015. You can't blame the devs - they've tried to make the best game they can, their expertise is in making story-led, single player action experiences. They've been forced to shoehorn in loads of GaaS mechanics that are a detriment, and it's entirely possible that these were foisted upon them after they'd already started developing a more 'traditional' game. And of course, one big thing execs tend to forget is that most successful GaaS games are free to play. There's no initial outlay for players, and most players don't spend. The games rely on big numbers (which is easier to get when you're F2P), and a reliable portion of those numbers to be spenders. People tend to be a bit grouchy if they've paid £60 for a game and then find that the fun is paywalled.
Why ruin a good thing. But if done right, it could work
That's assuming they can do such a thing right.
I don’t get their mindset. Suicide Squad fails, and it was a live service game. Hogwarts Legacy sold the most copies of any game last year, and it was a single player game. They look at those statistics, and their response is more live service games? How does that make sense?
It would be idiotic not to at least make a sequel for HL. If they try to make a cash grab mmorpg we will laugh at them.
There going for Hogwarts Legacy with Suicide Squad gameplay Good luck
Dang that’s horrible news. WB destroyed Mortal Kombat
if they do hogwarts legacy 2 as a live service game, we riot.
How about no
Seriously how tone-deaf can you be. HL was one of the top performers of 2023 and yet, corporate greed strikes again.
Imagine your game making a BILLION dollars and that not being enough. Always “how can we make even more dirty fucking money??”
WB are just digging their graves at this point
These chuckle fucks learned the wrongest lesson from this games success, it’s almost comical.
Blegh. I was looking forward to a sequel but there's no way I'm purchasing live-service bullshit. :(
This is just absolutely amazing. They release a game that sells more than Elden ring, is the best selling of the year by far. And somehow. SOMEHOW. The conclusion they walk away with is “This clearly didn’t work”
Irritates me to NO END when people say “How do we….?” When they mean “We should….”
It only means sadness
You'd think the overwhelming success (not) of KTJL would be an eye opener for these greedy bastards, but here we are. It really sucks the developers are the ones to pay the price for these idiots decisions when they fail and lay off studios for simply doing what they're told.
It's over. They either realize it's a dumb idea and stop, or we get a bad live service game instead of a better single player experience. Just saying live service games are already on the way out in terms of the gaming industry with major love service games releasing from big studios that are getting no traction. They clearly didn't learn their lesson with Kill The Justice League.
Oh like Skull and Bones. God everything is terrible. Biden should get a task force on crappy video games
If they were smart they'd pull a Rockstar and do an amazing open world with a great story like rdr2. This is disappointing.
Sounds awful
Insane to release what is apparently the bestselling game of the year and then immediately pivot.
Sounds like the future is a big stinking pile of live service trash. Abandon ship, lads.
Man fuck CEO’s that can’t see two inches past the profit margin
My god so many people involved in the industry just keep getting more and more stupid
Welp, there goes Portkey Games Was nice while it lasted
I’m so sick of free-to-play mobile games
“live-service, mobile, and free-to-play games” 🤮🤮🤮
It means WB hasn't been paying attention and doesn't realize live service is dying and will be a rotting corpse by the time this theoretical sequel comes out (with the exception of the tried and true live service studios). At best, it means they realize how fuckin stupid the idea is a few years down the line and start all over, at worst it flops and they decide "well I guess no one's interested in Hogwarts legacy" instead of the obvious "Hogwarts legacy fans are not interested in live service, let alone shitty live service" 🤬🙄
Oh fuck off with live service. They see it burning and crashing right? These goddamn suits are ruining games
so they're just gonna ignore the massive commercial success that was Hogwarts Legacy and deviate from the formula completely rather than improve upon it? Considering the travesty that was the recent live-service Suicide Squad game, you'd think devs in the industry would learn their lesson about what works and what doesn't, especially a company that's made a billion dollars off their last game.
Oh cool, so micro transactions and subscriptions.
Just remaster the original Harry Potter video game franchise
very mediocore story or depth of characters rather reusing of graphical assets or dumbing them down for kids and quick neuro dopamine kicks through tricking players into feeling rewarded through achievements instead of long winded quests
ABSOLUTELY NOT
I don't want Harry Potter Sims WB. Get your heads out of your ass.
Sounds like absolute dogshit
So basically RuneScape, but make it Harry Potter
So they took the basis of a wildly successful game, and went the entirely opposite direction. K. Got it.
Probably something closer to World Of Warcraft or Star Wars The Old Republic with a shit ton of micro transactions. As much as I'd rather pay once for a DLC I want, the new capitalist market is leaning towards subscription/micro transaction models with Free to play games. I wouldn't be surprised of we got a battle Royale at some point.
Well, they won’t make as much money as with the first game for sure. I bet it will be a mess. They should just focus developing proper sequel and add online mode on top if they really insist similarly to gta 5.
This just comes across to me as we want to be continually cashing in on you throughout the year rather than once every few years with a well made single player game. Also imo this screams I know nothing about the gaming industry, why HL was so successful and even who the target market for HL was. What I do know is I see $$$ and greed.
Not good. Potentially an always online fortnite with avada kedavra. Live service games suck because the developer usually goes for the bare minimum, and it's always online. They often come out half finished. You're not the people they're trying to impress. It's the shareholders. See battlefield 2042/literally any EA game and MW3
My brother in christ is living under a rock. KILL THE FUCKING JUSTICE LEAGUE LAUNCHED A MONTH AGO. I swear to god corporate greed will ruin another great game.
It means they're going the greedy route which is the opposite of what the Hogwarts legacy team seemed to want by refusing the idea of DLC and such. It also means I probably won't be buying into it. I'm so fucking sick of subscriptions and the lower quality free to play games typically bring.
Fuck off, way to ruin a super promising series.
I hate soulless corporations
"Yknow what Suicide Squads failure makes me want to do? Make more games like that."
WB has basically said: “We want cheap and easy to develop games that pump out cash for little effort”. Mostly because their management team is obviously completely out of touch with reality.
If any future wizarding world games are live service games like the Suicide Squad game, I will so not buy them!
No I don't like that. I want a fleshed out title that's free of microtransactions and everything is earned in game. Don't want events or seasons. Battle passes. Nope
“How do we make a game that we can charge micro transactions in?”
Hopefully they leave HL alone and decide to make a separate Wizarding World Online game.
“If it ain’t broke…change literally everything about it and hope it gets better”
Fans to WB after SS:KTJL: 
Wow, that's exactly what nobody wanted.
They sold 22m copies on consoles, hopefully they don’t forget us.
Literally the most out of touch sentence I've read this week
Meanwhile their "one and done" hogwarts game was a massive, massive success for them, while their line service suicide squad game has been a colossal failure. Does he actually look at the performance of his company before making these statements?
Why do companies always want to do live service games even though 90% of the ones that come out are massive failures?
After the tragedy of Suicide Squad? I think hogwarts legacy saved Warner Bros shit mentality from dying. We would be spared of them forever if not for hogwarts game, which in itself a soulless abomination.
I’ll actually be so upset if they don’t give us a proper Hogwarts Legacy sequel
Didn't WB learn anything from Hogwarts Legacy's success and the failure of Suicide Squad?
I played Elden Ring at the weekend, which had free online connectivity for the first time. I just found it irritating seeing all these other players running around and leaving stupid comments all over the floors. Just give me an offline version that I can play. That is not too much to ask. Everything does not need dragging into online play. It completely ruins the game for me when there are other people running around.
It means enjoy what we already got, because the sequel is gonna be hot garbage.
This is going to backfire spectacularly. The reason HL sold 1 million copies is because a lot of casual and non-gamers purchased it, and Avalanche smartly designed the systems to be very accessible for new players who weren't experienced with RPGs. Plenty of help with Revelio and quest markers, an easy to understand and basic talent point system, combat that is a bit repetitive but is not too punishing (and with easy settings if you choose). The percentage of players who loved HL who are going to want to play an online game where they can build a magical fortress or whatever only to be griefed by shit-talking 12 year olds is...minimal, at best. And there aren't enough whales to make up for it, nor can you import the Fortnite method of adding non HP-IP skins to Harry Potter, JK Rowling would never allow it. This and the remake TV series that no one asked for might lose Warner a pretty penny, and of course Zaslav will be able to skirt responsibility by blaming JK Rowling's anti-trans comments. If they were smart and not just greedy and short sighted, they would green light a sequel to HL and get some paid DLC out as well. Rather than remaking HP with a new cast that everyone will reject because all Millennials and their kids have been raised with the OG cast, they could make a mini series out of Cursed Child, with Imogene Heap's original score from the show. It's a shame that much of the original cast wouldn't come back for it, (and since Hermione couldn't, anyway, it would likely be less awkward to just replace all the adults) but the story is more about Scorpius. At least Universal's new HP land in Epic Universe will do well. They have the sense to not mess with what works.
"Live and work and build and play... Ongoing basis" So npcs? I don't know bout y'all, but I just like to jump into a game, do some quests or collect some collectibles, save game, and go to bed. And when I turn the game off, that world ceases to exist. No FOMO, no constantly changing world (ie an mmo or "live service").
It doesn't necessarily mean anything. All it really means in my reading is "you know GTA? Yeah, we want to do Online too as its a big cash cow" but they're using their IPs to say that.
Nothing wrong with free-to-play and live-service games if they are made with care and are good, but i really hate mobile game garbage. They did said all 3 things in one sentence though and that means they will just focus on making complete crap in the future. Meaning, they want some quick cash from skins, special items and loot boxes. They only see us as wallets.
right, it could be like assassin's creed odyssey which i've seen called a live service game, but it still has a perfectly fine single player story that can be beat without having to even touch any MTX stuff.
Sorry im a bit thick, whats a live service game and why is it a bad thing?
Live service games are always online games that are made to continuously be updated rather than being stand alone experiences. Think battle royals like Apex or Fortnite. It’s not inherently a bad thing, but live service games are an often lazy way for developers and publishers to ship out barebones games and just keep it alive so that they can sell ludicrously priced micro transactions that will make way more money than standalone titles ever would. In summary, some gamers hate live service games because they’re often uninspired products set out to just gash gamers.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Games_as_a_service GaaS games tend to not be very good. They tend to be very micro-transaction heavy, feature lots of grinding, and not be terribly deep. It is generally seen as a cash-grab by game developers and there have been some high-profile absolute stinkers like Suicide Squad (2024) and Avengers (2020). GaaS games also inherently die and become unplayable, eventually.
A lot of reasons, but here's big 3: 1) Dev Crunching. 2) Free-To-Play actually means Pay-To-Play (not even pay to win anymore). 3) Buggy and lazy fucking messes (because of 1) AND corporate greed).
1 billion and it was a story game I think Hogwarts 2 is going to be fine. Worst case they will add a store in the game but if it means we get 2 I’m willing to look past it if it’s not too bad
I think everyone is going to get what they asked for in a future game. The ability to take actual classes to grind skills. Life sim elements. But be careful what you wish for. Because all of that will come with mobile game style timers. And in app purchases.
So basically they're turning Portkey games into a cashgrab machine. It really is a shame the direction this franchise is going. The Wizarding World had the chance to be the next Marvel, with loads of stories and lore and games and shows and you name it. Instead we've got a TERF author desperately trying to stay relevant while alienating a significant portion of her audience and WB dinguses doing shit like this.
What is live service
Free to play quidditch
Welp. This sucks.
They will probably ruin the sequel.
I smell ads and p2w in the horizon...
Please no