Despite J.K. Rowling’s controversies, latest ‘Hogwarts Legacy’ trailer courts massive hype

Hogwarts Legacy‘s attachment to Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling gave the game a bad rap from the very start.

Discourse surrounding the game has been near-unceasing in the months leading up to its February release, as fans war between a desire to enjoy the game’s robust magic system and their disapproval of Rowling’s increasingly damaging rhetoric regarding the trans community. The knowledge that Rowling will financially benefit from the game’s sales — regardless of her bare involvement in its development — is pushing many to boycott the title, but not all.

Rowling created the Wizarding World that Hogwarts Legacy is based around, and thus is inextricably tied to the game, despite the publisher’s continued attempts to keep the author at arm’s length. Backlash has surrounded nearly every fresh development regarding the game, but the official launch trailer is changing the conversation somewhat.

Many fans remain leery of the title, and its potential to aid in Rowling’s ongoing campaign as a trans-exclusionary radical feminist, but that isn’t tamping down their excitement at the open, nostalgic world Hogwarts Legacy offers up. The trailer, which dropped on Feb.1, provides the most recent look at the story and gameplay provided by the most robust Harry Potter game to date.

Comments below the trailer gush over the opportunity to visit a Hogwarts sporting modern graphics, and enjoy the game’s intriguing return to a world that shaped a huge number of childhoods. People are largely ignoring the controversy surrounding the game, and leaning on nostalgia and sheer enthusiasm instead.

Many people are making references to their childhoods, as they share their thoughts on the upcoming title. Many people note that they’ve been waiting for a truly worthy Harry Potter game since they were young, and Hogwarts Legacy seems poised to deliver exactly that.

The potential consequences of a Hogwarts Legacy purchase certainly haven’t vanished from fans’ minds, but the official launch trailer appears to have shifted the conversation away from controversy and into enthusiasm. We’ll see if that excitement is reflected in the game’s sales when it arrives on Feb. 10.