Developer Reveals Early Footage of First Harry Potter Open World Game After 18 Years

The team working on No Man's Sky is full of experienced developers. One of them is Martin Griffiths. Long ago, he spent eight years developing the engine that powered the Harry Potter games, and he shared some intriguing anecdotes from that time.

1. He found a piece of gameplay from an early version of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on PlayStation 3 on an old SD card. Griffiths explains that this game was revolutionary for the series, as it was the first time the devs successfully implemented data streaming technology, enabling the introduction of an open-world structure.
2. The video itself is interesting, but another fact shared by Griffiths is equally intriguing. It turns out that the conversion of Quake3 on PS2 was built on an early version of the engine, which was developed with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in mind.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was released in 2007. The PS2, Nintendo Wii, PS3, PSP, and PC versions featured fully 3D graphics, with individual releases differing mainly in graphic quality. However, the game was also released for the GameBoy Advance and Nintendo DS portable consoles, where the developers used pre-rendered backgrounds and static camera shots, like in the early installments of the Resident Evil series.

If nostalgia encourages you to return to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, it's worth using the Resolution Fix modification on PC, which allows you to play in 1920x1080 resolution.

1. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – game guide

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

June 26, 2007

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• Harry Potter (franchise)
• EA / Electronic Arts
• games trivia