The last Harry Potter book was published over 10 years ago but that hasn’t stopped the grip Potter Fever has had on our lives.
Fans of the series still flock to Potter World, buy up tickets to the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and make their own Harry Potter adventures in Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery.
The latest Harry Potter hype you need to know about? An augmented reality (AR) game, named Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, from the makers of Pokémon Go, Niantic.
Initially revealed in 2017, Niantic said at the time: "We're thrilled to partner with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, and WB Games San Francisco’s development team to bring this magical and beloved series to life in a brand new way.
"Harry Potter: Wizards Unite will leverage the full stack of the Niantic Platform while also providing an opportunity to pioneer all new technology and gameplay mechanics."
Things have been pretty quiet since then, until the company released a teaser trailer of the game, which is slated for release this year.
What does the Wizards Unite trailer tell us about the game?
The trailer shows a young girl capturing a snitch and conjuring up a poster on a wall which reads: “The Wizarding World is at risk of exposure. We need your help,” before she disappears.
You can “enlist” to help protect the Wizarding world at HarryPotterWizardsUnite.com. According to the site, The Ministry of Magic is looking for witches and wizards to save the wizarding world from the Calamity.
As part of this mission, Niantic say gamers will learn spells, explore their real neighbourhoods and cities to discover and fight legendary beasts. There's also going to be some team action involved, as you will be able to join up with other players to take down enemies.
Why Wizards Unite sounds a lot like Pokemon Go
It sounds like there is going to be more of a plot to the Harry Potter AR game compared to Pokemon Go, which encouraged people to catch different Pokémon out in the wild, using their smartphones.
If anyone is going to make a successful Harry Potter AR game, it’s going to be Niantic. A year after it released Pokemon Go, there was still 65 million people playing every month.
The company held a Pokemon Go fest in Chicago this year which saw 20,000 players gather to catch mythical Pokemon across the city.
Given the huge fan base Harry Potter still commands, there are going to be a lot of high expectations for Harry Potter: Wizards Unite.
When is the Wizards Unite release date?
We're still not sure when the game will actually be released, but this week a couple of US journalists had a first look at how the game will be. This is a major hint that Wizards Unite is going to be released soon.
Initial reports say the game is very similar to Pokemon Go, but it's slightly more complicated than finding pokemon in the world around you.
Instead, Wizards Unite is more like a role-playing game, encouraging you to take on a character in order to carry out the missions, which is rather unique for AR mobile games.
That being said, it sounds like it is going to be a lot of fun.
If you are an Android user, you can pre-register for the game already on the Google Play Store. iPhone users are told to stay tuned for more updates.
Wands at the ready.
