WB announces a Harry Potter Quidditch multiplayer game

Warner Bros. has revealed the existence of a new Harry Potter game. Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions is a competitive multiplayer game based on the fictional sport popularized by the Harry Potter novels.

The game’s website is a little bare, featuring only a sign-up portal to be a play tester and a lengthy FAQ highlighting details about the game, its publisher, Portkey Games, and the level of involvement of noted and vocal transphobe J.K. Rowling, who has said trans women are “predators” and should therefore be disallowed from “single gender” spaces. The FAQ doesn’t say when the game will be released or on what platforms, but it does denote that it’s been in development for several years.

Hogwarts Legacy, the open-world-ish Harry Potter game taking place a hundred years or so before the events of the book, did not feature Quidditch as an activity, and it’s possible Quidditch Champions takes place in the same era. Interestingly, the real-world sports league based on the game changed its name to Quadball to not only dodge Warner Bros. copyright lawyers but also to distance the game from its openly transphobic creator.

Despite its creator’s views and the harm those views have done to the trans community, the Harry Potter IP train keeps a-chugging with HBO Max (known now as just Max) announcing that it’s ordered a 10-year-long series based on the books. When asked about Rowling’s transphobia and how that will affect the new series, HBO chair Casey Bloys sidestepped the question and affirmed that Rowling will be involved.