Harry Potter and the brand new video game

Hi everyone, it’s Jason. Harry Potter fans who can look past the franchise’s controversies will be pleased with the new video game. But firs [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Hi everyone, it’s Jason. Harry Potter fans who can look past the franchise’s controversies will be pleased with the new video game. But first… Today’s must-reads: • PayPal’s CEO [will retire]( • Yahoo will [cut 1,000 jobs]( • SpaceX [performed a key engine test]( Expecto patronum Fans of Harry Potter have long wished to inhabit, or at least visit, Hogwarts Castle, a sprawling wizarding fortress full of magical staircases, talking paintings and mischievous ghosts. The new video game Hogwarts Legacy offers the most convincing re-creation yet — for those willing to look past the culture wars surrounding the game. Hogwarts Legacy, out Friday, is a role-playing game developed by Salt Lake City, Utah-based Avalanche Software. Set in 1899, a century before the events of the Harry Potter books, it lets players become a fifth-year student at a fully explorable version of Hogwarts and its surrounding areas. You can cast spells to make objects levitate, fly on a broomstick and take a class on Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts. There’s a story involving ancient magic and goblins, but the game’s real selling point is to let fans live their fantasy life as a student at Hogwarts, picking a wizarding house and exploring the castle with a host of other kids. Thanks to this meticulous formulation of Harry Potter’s environment, Hogwarts Legacy is primed to be one of the year’s biggest games. It has topped sales charts and broken streaming records on Twitch. It’s a vital release for the game’s publisher, Warner Bros., as well as for console makers Microsoft Corp. and Sony Group Corp., coming after a thin year for big-budget games, said Piers Harding-Rolls, an analyst at the market research firm Ampere Analysis. This is the first Harry Potter console game not tied directly to a movie, which allowed the developer to work on its own timetable, devise an original story and maintain a high production value. As a result, it’s already the best-reviewed game in the franchise. At the same time, the game’s launch has been partly overshadowed by [controversy surrounding JK Rowling’s views on transgender people](. Although Rowling was not involved in the game, she still owns the franchise and will benefit culturally and financially from its sales. Some fans are struggling to reconcile their desire to play Hogwarts Legacy with their distaste for what she has said. The Harry Potter franchise has always struggled with a clumsy depiction of minorities, according to critics. The only notable Asian character, for example, is named [Cho Chang]( — a mishmash of Korean and Chinese surnames. The goblin bankers veer awfully close to [antisemitic tropes](, and the house elves are sort of willing slave laborers. The team behind Hogwarts Legacy went to greater lengths toward inclusion. The tool to design a character has been praised for its [realistic depiction of Black hair styles](, and more people of color talk in the first few hours of Hogwarts Legacy than in all of the Harry Potter films combined. One of the main companion characters is a Ugandan wizard with a rich back story. An important side character is transgender, and another talks openly about her wife. It feels, in some ways, like the game is overcompensating for the flaws of the franchise and its author, but the results are welcome. After spending about 10 hours with a review copy, I found the game has some annoyances. Combat can be monotonous, there are some graphical glitches, and the dialogue can get repetitive — every time you pass one of the castle’s fast-travel points, known as the Floo Network, a ghost pops up and repeats the same irritating line. As a faithful adaptation of Harry Potter’s world, Hogwarts Legacy is a triumph. The game is at its best when you’re exploring the castle, hunting for secret passages and running into chattering groups of students. Little skits unfold as you wander — a ghost tortures one student by knocking the books out of his hand; a librarian yells at another for sneaking into a restricted area. For Harry Potter devotees, there may only be one real complaint: no quidditch. —[Jason Schreier](mailto:jschreier10@bloomberg.net) This news analysis also ran in Game On, a weekly newsletter about the video game business. [Sign up here](. The big story TikTok identified a Russian disinformation network that spread anti-Ukraine propaganda to [more than 100,000 European users]( over the summer, mostly targeting those in Germany, Italy and the UK. Get fully charged US wireless providers exaggerated the breadth and quality of their coverage, [complicating efforts by the Biden administration]( to expand service to hard-to-reach areas. GM signed a deal with semiconductor provider GlobalFoundries to [lock up production capacity for chips]( in an effort from the automaker to navigate shortages. Elon Musk demanded to know why his reach on Twitter was shrinking and then fired a top engineer who suggested people were simply less interested in what he had to say, [Platformer]( reported. Solar company Nextracker raised $638 million in the biggest US initial public offering of the year, [ending a four-month chill on listings](. More from Bloomberg Listen: [Foundering: The John McAfee Story]( is a new six-part podcast series retracing the life, the myths and the self-destruction of a Silicon Valley icon. Subscribe for free on [Apple](, [Spotify]( or wherever you get your podcasts. 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