NEW YORK, March 12 — If you don't like spiders, this might not be the game for you.
Would-be players of Harry Potter: Wizards Unite can look forward to keeping the world safe from manifestations of chaotic magic, discovering marvelous map secrets, and completing special Wizarding Challenges upon its 2019 launch.
That's according to a three-pronged preview from "Pokémon Go" company Niantic and Warner Bros' Portkey Games studio.
The reveal represented a first blog post from the augmented reality app's official website, harrypotterwizardsunite.com, and site visitors can see various aspects of the game in action.
One animated screenshot shows a player casting spell upon a giant spider, putting it on roller skates before it loses balance and is whisked away.
Another has them open and walk towards a portal — a Portkey — showing a view of the wizarding world beyond.
The third illustrates how screen-swipe actions can be used to engage in spell-wielding combat during a Wizarding Challenge.
Harry Potter: Wizards Unite brings a new spin to the AR tech of Pokémon Go, using a mobile device's on-board camera and location detection to show and guide players towards in-game objects and events at various types of real-world locations.
Pokémon Go launched midway through 2016 and was an immediate and enormous popular and financial success as players plunged funds into the app in order to find, collect, and train individual creatures from the Pokémon franchise and together vie for control of in-game bases that overlapped with real-world public attractions.
The "Harry Potter" equivalent promises to combine content and characters from the original films as well as the more recent Harry Potter prequels, inviting players to engage in individual, local and worldwide efforts to explore and protect their surroundings. — AFP-Relaxnews
