New Harry Potter game next summer

By Robert Purchese Published 9 September, 2008

With Half-Blood Prince film.

EA plans to launch the sixth adventure of bespectacled hero Harry Potter in summer 2009, alongside the pushed-back big-screen release. They're both out in July.

Series developer Bright Light Studio will keep to much the same formula, modestly expanding gameplay to include potion-mixing, wizard duels, better Quidditch and even Ron's romantic pursuits. Wii wand gestures are in, too, although probably not for Ron's romantic pursuits.

Of the books, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince remains one of the better. The plot revolves around a mysterious book of potions authored by the titular prince, of whom Harry spends a term at school trying to uncloak. Plus baddies. Plus tantrums. Plus twist.

The Half-Blood Prince is also, of course, the penultimate book. The seventh film has been split into two parts and is already in pre-production, pencilled in for 2010 and 2011 respectively.

Daniel "Harry Potter" Radcliffe will be 22 by the end of the series. Blimey.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is in development for Mac, PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, DS and mobiles.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (8) Latest comment 3 years ago

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  • Triggerhappytel #1 3 years ago

    I've got nothing to say about the game (except that I thought the film was out sooner), but does anyone want to know the book's twist?

    Dumbledore is gay.

  • Olemak #2 3 years ago

    No that is not the twist :)

    Anyway - with this being the sixth iteration of basically the same game, and with 6 extra mnths to polish, it could theoretically be ok. For a movie tie.in licence. Couldn't it? Please?

    Not that I really care about Harry Potter games, but there's a whole lot of kids out there who will get this as presents. It will probably be the best selling wii game ever (except wii play, which doesnt count).

  • Zomoniac #3 3 years ago

    The last one was pretty and atmospheric and could've been ok had they not made the entire thing a series of fetch quests.

  • menage #4 3 years ago

    Presents? Christmas coming that soon?

  • Olemak #5 3 years ago

    Some kids do get presents outside of the "holiday season" you know. There's a thing called nagging. And birthdays. And there's even just family visits.

    Pluss, with the game realeased in the summer, it will still be on store shelves come christmas, and thereæll be a lot of aunts and uncles looking for "safe" presents the kids will actually enjoy. A Harry Potter game fits the bill perfectly. Although the tradition of releasing the movies and the games in november was probably even better for the gift factor.

  • menage #6 3 years ago

    Ah yes forgot about nagging. God, I did that a lot back in the day, wonder if it still reaps rewards.

  • Olemak #7 3 years ago

    I fear that I have leveled out of an effective nagging build.

  • Mnia786 #8 3 years ago

    Typical EA - releasing the game on pretty much every console. Hell, they would release it on the C64 if enough people still had one...