EA's Harry Potter MMORPG That Never Was
The Harry Potter franchise could have lived to see its own MMORPG - if only Electronic Arts had no doubts about the brand's future.
- Kim Salzer - former director of product marketing at Electronic Arts - revealed that at the turn of the 20th and 21st century, the company worked on an MMORPG set in the Harry Potter universe;
- The project was supposed to combine online gameplay with an "offline experience" in the form of real-life gifts for players;
- The project was eventually scrapped due to changes at the company and uncertainty about the future of the franchise.
Harry Potter fans have something to look forward to. A special program will soon air on HBO Max to celebrate the brand's 20th anniversary, and an ambitious RPG set in the wizarding universe is in development. There was, however, a project that'll never see the light of day - an MMORPG based on Harry Potter, which Electronic Arts was working on at the turn of the century.
The game was mentioned by Kim Salzer, who was director of product marketing at Electronic Arts from 2000 to 2003. She is currently in charge of the marketing department for the Original Gamer Life platform and found a moment to speak with streamer Brandon "The True Brandolorian" Coates.
Salzer was to be directly associated with the project, which allegedly promised to be very good. EA planned to combine MMO gameplay with an "offline experience", which would take the form of gifts sent to players for their achievements in the game. Work on the title proceeded smoothly and the devs even created a beta version, and Salzer sincerely believed in the project's success.
Eventually, however, the game was sent to the trash due to changes in Electronic Arts at the time, as well as lack of faith of the board in the Harry Potter franchise, because, as some believed, the popularity of the brand could remain at an appropriately high level for another year or two at most:
"But it [the MMORPG project based on Harry Potter license - ed. note] was killed off, for lack of a better term, because EA was going through changes at the time and they [board members - ed. note] simply didn't know or didn't believe the brand would survive beyond a year or two."
