PCG Article Nearly 500,000 people are playing Hogwarts Legacy on Steam before it's truly out

[ZedClampet]

Despite the backlash against it, Hogwarts Legacy is already a major hit on Steam and Twitch.


To be clear, I'm 100 percent in favor of Trans rights and support their cause completely, but I loathe "cancel culture" and the anti-free speech war against "wrong" thought, so this is heartwarming to me. A small but loud group of people were trying to cancel Twitch streamers who played the game, but it didn't work. It is by far the most watched SP game in Twitch history and currently is being watched by 12 times the number of people who are watching that Epic game that shall not be spoken.


Mods, if this is too political, I won't be upset if you delete it, but this is an ongoing gaming story and I wanted to comment on it.

 

[Zloth]

Play a game before even the Day 1 patch!? What MADNESS is this!?!?

 

[Brian Boru]

if this is too political

Your post is fine, depends how it goes from here as to whether the thread stays open or visible

 

[Zimbaly]

I'm not against cancelling stuff, I think playing the game is a persons choice. I'm not gonna play it, but if others want to then by all means have fun.

 

[Pifanjr]

I saw a headline yesterday saying it was at 350,000 concurrent players on Steam, I wonder how much higher this is going to go.

I'm not surprised though, the Harry Potter fandom is huge and from what I've read the game does a great job at making the world feel alive.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

I won't be playing the game, but it has nothing to do with any controversy. My only reason for not playing the game is because I'm not a Harry Potter fan, and I just don't want to play it.

 

[DXCHASE]

As someone whos never read or played anything Harry Potter, this game does kinda make me want to try it out at my age. I like wizardly stuff and the graphics look great.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I dont care about the franchise either, but obviously 500k people cared enough to pre-order the expensive edition and boot it up straight away. Bananas.

Elden Ring hit near 1 million last year for sometime and it was near or top of the charts in the week or two after release. Could this get near to 2 million?

 

[ZedClampet]

I dont care about the franchise either, but obviously 500k people cared enough to pre-order the expensive edition and boot it up straight away. Bananas.

Elden Ring hit near 1 million last year for sometime and it was near or top of the charts in the week or two after release. Could this get near to 2 million?

Maybe. Wonder how many people spent the extra $10 versus those who paid the normal price? You would think most people just paid $60, but you never know. Game doesn't officially release until tomorrow, so I guess we'll see.

 

[ZedClampet]

As someone whos never read or played anything Harry Potter, this game does kinda make me want to try it out at my age. I like wizardly stuff and the graphics look great.

I read all the books but the last one, but I read them when they first came out, and my memory is kind of hazy. I did enjoy them quite a bit even as an adult. Of course, this was before all the controversy, but I had my children read them as soon as I taught them how to read because I thought they were a great tool to inspire kids to a lifetime of reading, and it seems to have worked because they have been reading ever since. My daughter started reading them at 3. My son was a joker and literally refused to learn how to read until he was 5, but then he started reading them.

I would have a word like "the" on a flashcard, and I would show it to Guido, tell him what the word was and ask him to repeat it, and he'd say, "I don't know"

Me: The word is "The". What's the word?
Guido: I don't know.
Me: The word is "The"
Guido: Okay
Me: What's the word?
Guido: I don't know.

Then he would smile at me. I even tried raising the incentives, and he refused, so I just waited till he was older.

 

[ipman]

I think if Harry Potter fans enjoy it then good for them.

I think everyone has a right to their personal opinions, and most people are intelligent enough to realise that an author/director/creator's personal opinions are distinct to the works they produce.

She, J.K. Rowling worked as a secretary for Amnesty International and when writing Harry Potter was a single parent living in poverty.

Her books have brought much pleasure and a sense of magic to millions of children(and adults), so if the games can do the same, surely that's a good thing.

 

[Johnway]

truth be told i'm not interested in harry potter (never read the books nor seen any of the movies) and i've kept out of all the controversy etc. I doubt i'm going to get the game tbh unless it was critically acclaimed and dirt cheap. i'm talking elden ring / half life /bioshock etc levels of acclaim before i consider and even then i'll probably give it a miss.

 

[McStabStab]

I'm not a huge Harry Potter fan, but when I mentioned this game to my wife (not a frequent gamer, mind you) she said, "when can we play it?" Long story short, we purchased the deluxe edition and have played three days in a row now. Happy wife, happy life 🤷‍♂️

 

[Brian Boru]

Happy wife, happy life

Words to live by!

I never read the books, but have seen all/most of the movies. I'm not a fantasy guy, but the world and story I saw is a fantastic creation—as @ipman says, JK has done the world a great service with her creation.

My guess is the game will bring a new audience to gaming, like with Stabby's wife, which is a good thing.

Before the recent reveal about her views and activism, all I knew about JK was…

worked as a secretary for Amnesty International and when writing Harry Potter was a single parent living in poverty

…so I was delighted for her.

I also hope people separate the creation from the creator.

 

[ipman]

I'm not a huge Harry Potter fan, but when I mentioned this game to my wife (not a frequent gamer, mind you) she said, "when can we play it?" Long story short, we purchased the deluxe edition and have played three days in a row now. Happy wife, happy life 🤷‍♂️

I love it when people who really want to play a game, blame the wife, or children, or dog. (I'm only joking of course)

 

[ipman]

Before the recent reveal about her views and activism, all I knew about JK was…
…so I was delighted for her.

I also hope people separate the creation from the creator.

I think one way to think about all this. Only people who are gay know what that means to them. Same with trans-sexual people.
And those that aren't probably all need some educating(not us of course). Often our views are formed because we grow up at a certain time, maybe in a certain location, within a certain family, etc.

So forget 'cancelling', think educate and enlighten.

 

[McStabStab]

I love it when people who really want to play a game, blame the wife, or children, or dog. (I'm only joking of course)

Ha! Truthfully, watching her play makes me want to jump in! I may have to start my own playthrough, but I’ll have to find a time when she’s not playing

 

[ipman]

Ha! Truthfully, watching her play makes me want to jump in! I may have to start my own playthrough, but I’ll have to find a time when she’s not playing

It is the games that I'd never think I'd play, that get my totally hooked.

 

[Sarafan]

Play a game before even the Day 1 patch!? What MADNESS is this!?!?

Welcome to the era of modern gaming times.

I watched the game on streams for some time and I'm very positively surprised how good it is. And it doesn't target only the younger audience which I feared before the release. I like it so much that I'll probably buy it some time in the future, when the price falls down a bit. An I'm definitely not a fan of the Harry Potter franchise.

 

[McStabStab]

At this point - and I'm speculating here so take this with a grain of salt - I'm assuming PC Gamer and Gamespot are doing a quiet boycott by not having an official review out by the release date. I heard rumors that review codes came late but it definitely feels like there's some purpose behind the delay.

EDIT - Oof, Wired just gave it a 1/10. This is getting into new territory now.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

EDIT - Oof, Wired just gave it a 1/10. This is getting into new territory now.

If the game actually sucks, I don't have a problem with it. If it's a low rating because of activism, that's ridiculous.

 

[Alm]

It's definitely not a 1 game, 6 if you are being stingy

 

[Pifanjr]

If the game actually sucks, I don't have a problem with it. If it's a low rating because of activism, that's ridiculous.

I can imagine that the game is actually a 1 for this particular reviewer.

 

[Sarafan]

Rating it 1 is something absurd. I haven't played it yet myself of course, but from what I've seen on the streams, I'd rate it around 8/10. So the low rating is purely political IMHO.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I think the Wired 1/10 rating is very personal rather than political, having read the review in question. The game itself is certainly better than that from all other reviews and talk of it.

Almost 700K users peak today, not quite 2 million but it seems to be doing pretty well.