Sick and tired of waiting for news regarding the Harry Potter RPG whose gameplay footage was seemingly leaked over two years ago, members of the r/HarryPotterGame subreddit took to scanning every bit of information available on rumored developer Avalanche Software’s website, and lost it when one of them discovered what appears to be a Harry Potter book stashed away underneath one of the employers’ desks.
Although the image isn’t very crisp, Reddit users were able to identify the book as a copy of Harry Potter: The Character Vault. This tome, written by Jody Revenson and released in 2014, functions as an encyclopedia for the flora and fauna found within J.K. Rowling’s much-beloved World of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
What was it doing under the desk of some video game designer? Well, we can think of two reasons. The first, and most probable, is that said designer is simply one of the billions of Potterheads currently inhabiting the planet. Another hypothesis, less likely though far more exciting, would propose that the designer is using this book for reference in order to build the fabled RPG.
As one of the biggest, most financially successful media franchises of all time, it’s a little astonishing that Harry Potter and his friends have not yet made it into a prominent video game. Prominent is the key word here, because their world has been the setting of a handful of video games in the past, none of which, however, managed to leave much of a footprint on our culture.
Meanwhile, other intellectual properties like J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, George Lucas’ Star Wars and even George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series have been adapted into some impressive games – including Monolith’s Shadow of Mordor and its 2017 sequel, Shadow of War, EA’s Battlefront and Telltale Games’ point-click adventure Game of Thrones.
Whether Harry Potter will join the group remains to be seen. However, we sure hope this book found inside Avalanche’s offices is a sign that it will.
