Harry Potter: Wizards Unite took a lot of what made Pokemon Go so popular, put a Harry Potter theme on top of it, and looked to see if fans of the series ran with it. While there was definitely some initial interest around the game, it never reached the same level of popularity as Pokemon Go and unsurprisingly it fell out of mainstream discussions fairly quickly.
Having said that, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite did still have a community that played the game. One report stated that it managed to make about $40 million in profits since releasing back in June 2019. The problem is that compared to Niantic’s larger title, Pokemon Go, it was a failure. As a result, once the current storyline is completed, the game is going to be shut down.
Anyone still interested in playing it will have until the end of Jan. 2022, but make sure to download it before Dec. 6, 2021. Niantic explained its decision to shut the game down on its blog.
We launched Harry Potter: Wizards Unite more than two years ago, bringing together a community of witches and wizards from all over the globe in an epic quest to put an end to the Calamity and keep the wizarding world safe. In the coming months, we’ll be concluding the story and closing the game on January 31st, 2022. Players can read more on our Harry Potter: Wizards Unite blog for full details on what they can look forward to leading up to the finale, including a variety of in-game events, new content and gameplay changes.
Not all games are meant to last forever. Our goal with Harry Potter: Wizards Unite was to bring the magic of the wizarding world to life for millions of players as they stepped outside and explored their neighborhoods. We accomplished that together, delivering a two-year narrative story arc that will soon complete.
While Niantic is correct that no game is meant to last forever, they must be pretty certain that nobody is going to miss the game to be shutting it down so quickly after the conclusion of its story. Even games that aren’t being supported anymore will frequently keep servers up long after the game is finished so any current players can continue playing the game.
We have to wonder what this means for any future games Niantic will release. They recently released a Pikmin AR game called Pikmin Bloom and are also working on a similar game for Transformers. If these don’t manage to bring in record profits the way Pokemon Go have, will they be forced to share a similar fate as Wizard’s Unite? We hope not. Games, no matter the quality, shouldn’t be able to disappear so quickly.