The likelihood of a matured Harry Potter MMO

by Kyle Horner on Jun 17th 2008 7:30PM

We can all agree that the concept of a Harry Potter MMO has probably been shopped around the gaming industry a few times by this point. This has of course lead to rumors of such a game being in development. Recently these rumors -- and they are just that for the time being -- have popped up again after Turbine received 40 million in funding from various sources, which included some links to the Harry Potter franchise.

Being a topical blog, Mystic Worlds tossed its hat into the Harry Potter MMO ring, saying that the game may not be what some people are expecting -- if it's actually being made. The theory being that because the books are focused primarily on a younger audience the games will follow a similar path. If Turbine was to make a Harry Potter MMO chances are likely it would be a fairly straight-forward -- and well made -- adaptation that would be tailored towards a younger audience. It would be nice if the game was set after the original books and in a slightly more grown-up world, but somehow we doubt that's going to happen. Either way, we'll be playing such a game regardless -- it's just what we do.

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Tags: children, harry-potter, harry-potter-mmo, mystic-worlds, time-warner, turbine, young

Reader Comments (3)

Who would expect a Harry Potter MMO to be geared towards an older audience?

I like Disney animated movies, but I'd never expect games based on them to be targeted at adults.

Harry Potter has mostly a PG-13 rating. I would assume the MMO will be able to pull off a T rating and end up fun for adults; same as the books and movies did.

Depends on what you mean by "shopped".

Various established MMO entities have been interested for a long time, yes. But Ms. Rowling is a well known "control freak" - her desire to completely control any future MMO property is as large as her desire to control the films and the future theme park (Disney wanted it but was refused, as Ms. Rowling did not want to give the Imagineers any creative control over the park, for example).

I would imagine Turbine would stand a decent chance at it, based on how well they adhered to the IP with LoTRO. As well, EA Mythic might stand a chance, based on EA's prior relationship with the console games and such - but EA has no MMO experience except what they've recently purchased via Mythic.

I cannot see Sony or Blizzard standing a chance at getting that property.