We're All Wizards
We're All Wizards
E66: PlayStation showed off Hogwarts Legacy and fans are excited.
Good morning gamers! It’s official - Hogwarts Legacy is set to release during the 2022 Holiday Season. The newest addition to the Wizarding World has been so highly anticipated that PlayStation gave the game its own dedicated State of Play. Here’s what we learned,
Story Details
Single-player open-world action RPG
Players will be attending Hogwarts in the late 1800s completely free from the timelines of the books and movies but is still “firmly rooted in the the Harry Potter Universe”
You play as a custom character attending their 5th year of Hogwarts trying to catch up to the other students before graduation. You must enroll and attend classes such as potion classes, herbology, defense against dark arts etc.
Players will be able to select a house (Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Slytherin)
Your character has ties to ancient magic and you’re on a collision course with a goblin rebellion led by Rankrok and the Dark Wizard Victor Rookwood (major threats to the Wizarding World)
Gameplay Details
You’ll make friends and explore the secrets of their pasts, and the secrets of Hogwarts while also battling creatures throughout the world
A wide selection of spells allow for a choice in combat style (aggressive, stealthy etc.)
Exploration outside of Hogwarts is possible, including Hogsmead, the Forbidden Forest and Black Lake
Characters can be upgraded through a talents and abilities system, by using experience gained from quests, looted gear, potions or resources earned in-game
Taming Magical Beasts is possible
Elden Ring - Expanding the IP
Elden Ring has sold more than 12 million units worldwide since its February launch (including 1M units in Japan). This makes Elden Ring the fastest selling third-party game by a Japanese Studio ever, and the best selling “Souls” series game ever. Bandai Namco and FromSoftware only projected 4M units sold by the end of March.
The official Bandai Namco press release refers to Elden Ring as a “franchise”. The release also said to “Please look forward to more ELDEN RING as an IP (characters and other intellectual property) in hopes of expanding beyond the realm of games”. This could potentially mean a number of things including a TV series, films, novels, merchandise and much more.
Patch 1.03 was released on March 16th for the Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS5, PS4 and Steam. The patch includes several bug fixes, balance changes and the addition of other elements.
Esports Corner
Last week brought many small, but important developments across the esports industry so instead of focusing on three main news items, we’re going to highlight some of the best tidbits from the past week.
PGL Esports and Valve are officially hosting the last DOTA 2 Major of the year in Arlington, Texas - the first major Dota event to be held in the USA since 2016. It will take place between August 4-14th at the Esports Stadium Arlington.
Gambit Esports have decided to empower their Valorant roster to compete in the remainder of their VCT Challengers Stage 1 matches as an independent team called “M3 Champions''. This decision is a result of Russian-affiliated teams being sanctioned by the ESL.
The Coalition has unfortunately announced that Gears of War esports will come to an end after the conclusion of the current season. The developer cited that this decision is due to a “shift of focus to future projects”.
The Global Esports Federation has revealed that Dota 2, Rocket League and eFootball will be the three games featured at this summer's inaugural Commonwealth Esports Championships in Birmingham, England.
16-year old Super Smash Bros. prodigy “Sparg0” has won his third straight major tournament in seven days. Sparg0 took first place at this month's Smash Ultimate Summit 4, G4 Smash Ultimate Invitational and at Collision 2022.
Gaming Roundup
GameStop announced that they lost $381 Million during their 2021 Fiscal Year. Their focus has shifted to blockchain gaming and cryptocurrency.
Resident Evil the live-action TV series will be released on July 14. The Netflix series takes place 14 years after the start of the global apocalypse.
Ubisoft reveals Scaler, a cloud based technology that will allow them to push the limitations of game design unlike on consoles.
Perfect Dark's reboot is still years away as the developer has lost key members from their design, writing and development teams.
Starfield released a roundtable discussion, screenshots and eight seconds of gameplay. The game is set to release on November 11 for Xbox & PC.
Certain Affinity has been working on an unannounced IP since 2017/18. The game is reportedly a rival to the Monster Hunter franchise.
New World is holding off on reducing the player count of their 50vs50 PVP Wars. Since launch, the large scale battles have suffered performance issues.
Xbox held an Indie Developer showcase last week where they shared first gameplay reveals, new trailers, Game Pass announcements and more.
EA Play 2022 has been canceled. According to EA, the event can’t take place because their game releases are not properly lining up.
Private Division announced four new publishing partnerships with Die Gute Fabrik, Yellow Brick Games, Evening Star and Piccolo Studio.
Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection was released on PS5 earlier this year. The collection is reportedly coming to PC on July 15th.
If you enjoyed this week’s edition of the Weekly Recon, please send it to some friends and share it on social media. With your help we can become your emails best source of gaming news.
Follow us on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok for more gaming news. To contact us directly email us at gaming@weeklyrecon.com.