U.S. gamers are getting their Hogwarts letters of acceptance a bit earlier than expected.
Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, the free Pokémon Go style mobile Harry Potter game from Niantic, is now available for download in the U.S. Niantic had previously announced the game would launch on June 21st, making its availability on Thursday a nice surprise for American players. The Verge notes that mobile games of this kind typically launch across the world gradually over the course of several days.
Like Pokémon Go, Wizards Unite is an augmented reality game, meaning it overlays the game's elements onto the real world. Just as players use their phone's camera for Pokémon battles in Pokémon Go, Wizards Unite utilizes a player's camera as they cast spells. The game also has players hunt for items and encounter magical creatures, and it makes use of real world locations similar to the way Pokemon Go does, Polygon notes.
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Niantic, which worked with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for the game, held an open beta for Wizards Unite in Australia and New Zealand, and it received more than 100,000 downloads, VentureBeat reports. Although Pokémon Go's 2016 launch was infamously bumpy, Gamespot writes that "what's evident about Wizards Unite, though, is how much Niantic has learned from its early struggles with the game's predecessor."
After Wizards Unite, plenty of more games of this ilk are coming, with a Pokémon Go style version of Minecraft also on the way from Microsoft. Polygon last month described this game, Microsoft Earth, as "a lot like Pokémon Go, except deeper, richer, more ambitious and more technically advanced." A closed beta for Microsoft Earth will take place this summer. Brendan Morrow
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