Harry Potter RPG footage apparently leaks online

A video of an unannounced game set in the Harry Potter universe has leaked online (via Metro). The footage was posted to Reddit and YouTube before being pulled by Warner Brothers. It originated from a focus group conducted in the US, claims the source, and shows a third-person open-world action RPG set in a 19th Century version of Harry Potter’s world.

The apparent leak comes as JK Rowling is expanding the scope of the Harry Potter universe. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them kicked off a new saga of prequel films in 2016, and a stage play that follows the children of the franchise’s original heroes opened in London that same year. This game, which is rumored to be under development by Avalanche Software (not to be confused with Just Cause’s Avalanche Studios), could be the next canonical addition to the shared universe.

Confirmation that the footage is from a Harry Potter game comes with a sweeping shot of the iconic Great Hall from Hogwarts, the wizarding school that serves as a central location for most of the series. Students in robes can be seen, along with the hall’s signature floating candles.

The user who posted the footage claims, in a followup Reddit comment, that they were approached in a shopping mall to watch the trailer and complete a short survey for $8. Although cameras and phones were ostensibly not allowed, the company conducting the survey neglected to confiscate them, according to the Redditor.

Warner Brothers, the parent company of Avalanche Software, currently owns the rights to develop games based on the Harry Potter franchise and has already released the free-to-play Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery for mobile. Last year, Avalanche put out an advert for a writer with “a deep understanding of British culture” to work on an RPG with “branching storytelling.”

The footage appears to confirm some of the details in this job listing, and shows a character creation screen briefly. However, with no sign of any traits or stats, this footage stops short of confirming that the game is an RPG. Many action games, for example, allow a certain amount of character customization.

There is also no obvious evidence of a branching narrative or open-world in the footage. A map does appear on screen briefly at one point, but it could just as easily be a map for a linear level rather than an open-world one.

However, this map does give us a clue as to the game’s settings outside of Hogwarts. On screen we can see a small village, located just to the south west of a mountain range. To the south east there appears to be an illustration of Hogwarts school itself, although it’s a little out of focus and difficult to see.

This strongly suggests that the wizarding settlement of Hogsmeade will be a playable location. From the books we know that the village (“The only entirely non-Muggle settlement in Britain”) is within walking distance from the school, and sits at the foot of a mountain range in which Sirius Black finds sanctuary while on the run from the law.

There’s no guarantee the game shown in this footage will ever actually be released or if the footage is real in the first place, but if it is then this could be the game that fans of the franchise have been waiting for since the original books were first published. The original films were each accompanied by games that varied wildly in quality, and the most recent game fell prey to the worst excesses of free-to-play mobile gaming. Niantic, the developer of Pokémon Go, is also working on its own Harry Potter mobile game.

Update October 4th, 3:58 AM ET: This article was updated on October 2nd to reflect that Warner Brothers pulled the leaked footage from YouTube, citing copyright issues. Article updated again on October 4th to remove the GIF and gallery of screenshots at the request of Warner Brothers. Interpret that how you will!