It’s one of the most anticipated games of 2023. But the release of “Hogwarts Legacy”, inspired by the Harry Potter universe, is causing a stir. The famous “Gamekult” who shuns him and will not offer tests, calls for a boycott by fans of the young magician’s saga who no longer want to hear about JK Rowling… We take stock of the controversy surrounding “Hogwarts Legacy ”, which officially releases on Friday, February 10.
Boycott calls
The release of “Hogwarts Legacy” brings to the fore the criticism that has surrounded the work of JK Rowling for several years because of his positions considered transphobic.
“It’s not about whether this game has objectionable content – it’s about thinking that supporting this game somehow validates very, very dubious positions” of the author of Harry Potter, believes Will Overgard, a “streamer” broadcasting his video game games live to thousands of spectators under the pseudonym “VikingBlonde”.
This former employee of video game studios, aged 36, called on social networks his “friends and colleagues” To “do not support” “Hogwarts Legacy”, either by purchasing it or by creating streams or YouTube videos about the game. His video has since been viewed more than two million times.
JK Rowling at the center of the debates
The author behind the Harry Potter saga has been experiencing a wave of harassment since 2018 linked to the transphobic comments she posted on the networks. In 2020, it’s one tweet too many. As Devex, a media outlet for the global development community, publishes an article entitled “Opinion: Creating a more equal post-Covid-19 world for menstruating people”, the novelist protests: ““Menstruating people” . I’m sure there was a name for these people. Someone help me. Women? Women ? Do we? »
Since then, she has been the victim of an intense boycott, and is accused of being a TERF (the English acronym for “Trans-Exclusionary radical feminist”, translate “transphobic feminist”). Each product derived from the famous saga is subject to controversy, and the game “Hogwarts Legacy” is no exception.
This is only one more separation for the author, who had already been let go by the main actors of the saga. Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson had indeed declared one and the other that they regretted to see the adventures of the sorcerer’s apprentice tainted by such remarks.
The specialized press follows the movement
Critics of the game have also extended to part of the specialized press.
The American site “The Gamer” announced that it would not cover the release of the game in any form. The decision was ” easy “ to take, writes Jade King, one of the site’s main editorial managers, “as JK Rowling continues to assert herself as the most influential transphobe in the world”.
In France, “Gamekult” refused to test the game so as not to betray its values, the editorial staff announced in a series of tweets posted on Monday February 6:
“We refuse to give an echo to a brand whose economic and media weight benefits a woman erected as the figurehead of a movement of hatred. A woman whose activism aims to roll back the rights of trans people who are already constantly dehumanized”
A series of tweets that led when switching the Twitter account to private of the magazine in the face of a flood of messages.
A transgender character in the game
Note that a transgender character is nevertheless present in the game “Hogwarts Legacy”. This is Sirona Ryan, the owner of the Three Broomsticks Tavern. The opportunity for Avalanche Software, which developed the game, to recall that JK Rowling was not contacted at all to produce the scenario.
Asked by AFP, Warner Bros. Game, parent company of the Avalanche studio that developed the game, did not respond immediately.
According to Will Overgard, the calls not to buy “Hogwarts Legacy” however, will have little impact on sales of the game, which thanks to pre-sales is already at the top of the best-selling video games on the Steam platform.
“It has above all made it possible to raise the debate around” of the subject, he says.
