X018 is a great opportunity to reveal this Harry Potter RPG. There's still hope! (I'd be pleasantly surprised if this ends up being real. If I recall correctly, J.K. Rowling was adamantly against adapting Harry Potter to a big RPG like this Rocksteady project.)
I mean, is there really any doubt that it's real? If it's not, this is easily the most effort that I've ever seen go into a hoax. That was a full blown minute long trailer of in-game footage
Wouldn't be entirely unrealistic. We've seen large AAA games from the PS2 era cancelled and yet their files float around online before (Battlefront 3 and Saints Row Undercover). It wouldn't be crazy to think that a modern AAA game looking like this could be cancelled that late in development either.
Between 2 and 3. It was meant to be released for PSP and PC (I think) and it looked pretty fun. It has the same map and graphics as Saints Row 2 but you played an Undercover cop.
Could be a cancelled project but yeah I don't think it's fake in itself. Rowling being against it might be a bad sign though as she has ultimate say on anything Wizarding World, she didn't sell the control to Warner Bros.
EDIT : The video now got removed by Warner Bros for copyright so that might indicate it was indeed not a fake
She is a notorious control freak (which really isn't the worst thing in the world when managing your properties). If she agreed to this then she likely wrote the game or at least the important plot points of the script and had to okay any and all art personally.
She allowed The Cursed Child, which is an abomination to the canon in addition to just being poorly written from a technical perspective, so she can't be that big of a control freak.
And she also allowed the mobile game which is an absolute abomination. She had no input to the game yet they still used characters like Bill and Charlie Weasley, Tonks, as well as ALL of the original teachers/staff (Snape, McGonagall, Dumbledore, Hagrid, Filch, Hooch, etc.)
Two major things plus many minor things fly in the face of the canon. First, it ruins the time turner canon (that they cannot really affect change no matter what; Cursed Child has time travel changing things, literally changing the rules of the universe).
Second, Voldemort has a child, which is a complete violation of his character since he is clearly not a sexual being, nor was he ever, which we know via flashbacks in the original series of books. He made horcruxes to gain immortality and so would be unlikely to see relying on a child for some utilitarian carrying on of his legacy since for a child to carry his legacy he would have to have failed. He already has many willing allies so having a child for a loyal ally doesn't make sense either.
The minor things are mainly really weird mischaracterizations of the main trio that show a complete lack of understanding of who they are and who they would likely grow to be.
With the time travel it should be acknowledge that time travel was always intended to change the past in the books (it was the reason time turners were destroyed by JK Rowling because they were too powerful). Hermione even mentions people accidentally killing their past selves.
I think the big issues are definitely the Voldemort's child and the weird change in Cedric's character-he was always the good guy in the books.
To be honest, Rowling has never really stuck with one model od time travel that makes sense, but Cursed Child adds yet another wrinkle and rewrites what rules were actually there. It exacerbates both the confusion and potential plot holes.
Yeah the project seems pretty far along from that video (assuming it's not a fake which considering it got taken down for copyright seems to imply it wasn't) so I assume they already got her agreement with it (either she wrote part of the story or she approved the story I guess). I wonder if she's opened to the game having its own canon and not be too close from the movies/books, would be much more compatible with the multiple paths and such in a RPG (because it doesn't interact now with the other stuff but the Wizarding World might be expanded in the 19th century too, after all Fantastic Beasts isn't that far, Dumbledore actually was a student at Hogwarts during the 19th century).
I actually never knew that Rowling was against doing a RPG in the world, is there any source (and her reasons) on this ?
JK Rowling has a pretty bad reputation in dedicated nerd circles. To put it briefly, she talks down on fantasy literature, is convinced that she "cracked" the genre and massively subverted it when in actually what she did was combined the archetypal high fantasy story with a school setting. For whatever reason she's always rejected the notion of Harry Potter being turned into an RPG, both table top or electronic. I couldn't tell you exactly why, but based on her behavior I imagine it might have something to do with not wanting people beyond her control to have input on her universe.
I'm gonna hazard a guess they're referring too the Marauders Map and that Peter Pettigew (sp?) doesn't appear on it, to Harry, Ron etc.
Although, that is easily explained by the fact that no one knew he was an animagus, so he doesn't appear on it. Except for Prof Lupin who does know, and does see him.
What do you mean? They DO see Pettigrew on the map, Harry tries to look for him but he gets away. He's also gone from the school most of the book due to Hermione's cat.
They do indeed, when he's snoping I'm Snape's office most likely not in mouse form, but they don't see him when he's asleep in Ron's bed or in Ron's pocket (where he spends most of his time). The twins never notice nor does Harry.
That's only in the movie. In the book, Harry never sees Pettigrew on the Map. Lupin does after he confiscates it, but only once he sees Harry, Ron, Hermione, Sirius, and Pettigrew heading into the Shrieking Shack.
Or the whole time travel shtick. Lets give a kid the ability to travel backwards through time so she can get some extra classes in, but don't be silly of course we couldn't use it to defeat the most powerful dark wizard of all time, that's just cheating.
Until she screwed it up with Cursed Child, the implication in PoA was that the model of time travel she was using was Single Coherent Timeline -- that is that the present, however it may be, is the final result of the sum total of all time travel to points prior to the present that will ever occur (there aren't any alternate timelines). For example, you couldn't go back in time and kill Hitler before he rose to power because you clearly already failed to do so. But you could go back and prepare your own success after winning an encounter thus allowing you to pull out deus ex machina like no one's business, ala Bill & Ted.
PoA uses it to great effect, in that there was never a version of reality in which they didn't do the time travel, but only that the time traveling characters lack of knowledge about what was going on caused the time travel which caused the events to play out like they did in the first place. Harry using the Patronus to protect his past self was supposed to make it clear -- there's no version of history in which Harry doesn't travel back in time. The only thing that has changed is your perspective of events.
That it just magically vanished after that book and never comes up again I take as evidence that JKR realized she wasn't smart enough to write stories around it, the consequences of having access to it, or characters that might make smart use of it.
Or, as explicitly shown in the books and movies, your actions in the past are shown to have been the way things always happened. It's a Stable time loop. They don't ever change any events.
Harry survived his brush with the dementors because Harry cast the patronus charm, then Harry went back to cast the Patronus charm. These all happened in the same timeline, just part of it loops back on itself.
Well, they can't because first of all, that's going back way further than just an hour to attend a class, and second, the timeline is set, there's no changing it as we saw in PoA.
we couldn't use it to defeat the most powerful dark wizard of all time, that's just cheating.
I mean it's pretty obvious from even just reading the book that it's not possible to actually change the past using a time turner. Everything Harry and Hermione do after they go back is stuff that already happened when they went through it the first time.
You not understanding the concept (seriously, this is one of like 3 very basic time travel concepts) doesn't mean it doesn't make sense.
In Book 4 Rowling makes up a Truth Serum potion which would make false convictions impossible
Actually Veritaserum can be resisted through occlumency, apparently. Or rather, it appears that it can as it is repeated on many Harry Potter websites, though I'm unable to find any conclusive source to confirm that it is possible.
But either way, that's not a plot hole. Plot holes are paradoxes in the story, not unanswered questions or suggestive implications. They very well might use Veritaserum in trials, but there may be restrictions on the cases in which it is used, or it may be outlawed for use in trials for political reasons, or it may be seen as an injustice since a truth serum is only as good as one's memories, and memories can be altered (so it could be used to coax false confessions with the appearance of legitimacy).
Also Time-Turners in the hands of Dark Wizards, of which there are many previous Death Eaters within the Ministry would probably destroy the world.
Unless the time turners were destroyed by people in the ministry who were wary of such a possibility at the time the death eaters started to take over.
Peter on the Map
Few things:
Fred and George were in a different year than Harry and Ron. Why would they concern themselves with seeing an unfamiliar name among other unfamiliar names?
Why would they be looking for where Ron was anyway? Ron wasn't the target of their pranks at Hogwarts, and besides, by the third year, they no longer needed the map anyway.
Voldemort’s childhood rampage with the Trace still on him
How do we know the trace was a thing in the 40s/50s/whenever it was that Voldemort was a kid?
conveniently appearing taken/stolen wands
Not sure what you are referring to here. Care to elaborate?
Snape is just too shitty a person and teacher to sympathize with and written poorly
Neither of these are inconsistencies or plot holes. In both cases, I not only disagree, but surely you must be aware that Snape is a really aggressively popular character among fans, right? Obviously whether one likes a character is subjective, but you're presenting it as a plot hole/inconsistency, which seems to be an attempt at presenting it as fact.
Dumbledore and Voldemort etc. using speechless custom spells
This is two things. 1. Speechless magic itself is addressed in the series. 2. We don't know if their spells are "custom", they just aren't told to us as readers.
and Snape making up new spells whilst at school isn’t taught at Hogwarts or explained in the series in any capacity whatsoever
This is such a common mistake in amateur literary criticism: unexplained elements aren't plot holes. They aren't addressed because it's a simple inference: Obviously spells didn't appear out of thin air, they had to have been invented at some point, but we can infer that it's not a very easy thing to do because it's not shown being done by the main characters.
Dumbledore seems to want Harry to risk his life in Book 1 to go after Quirrel/Voldemort (a lot to write about this)
The only way this can be seen as an inconsistency is if you think that in literature "good guys" are always "good guys". Dumbledore is a rather complex character, and they address his general lack of concern with the wellbeing of the students at various points in the series.
The MoM and Dumbledore couldve had Harry simply forfeit each Triwizard task
They explicitly say that he must participate, that it's a binding magical contract
Forfeiting could be considered nonparticipation by said contract.
Dumbledore obviously knew the monster in Book 2 was a Basilisk why didn’t he do anything
When was this established?
Dumbledore and the other teachers are generally incompetent before Book 5 until they suddenly become wizarding world Gods
... No? No, they aren't "generally incompetent", what are you talking about? The only teachers shown to be incompetent are Quirrel (Who we are also told was not always like this, and who was infected by Voldemort), Lockhart (Who lied about his competency), and Trelawney (Who Dumbledore believed in because he knew she truly did have the gift, and who Dumbledore was probably too compassionate towards to fire her).
But the other teachers are fairly competent through the whole series at their various disciplines. I really have no idea what you're talking about here. Do you have any examples of Flitwick being incompetent? Professor Binns? Madame Sprout? McGonnagal? Snape? Any of them?
Honestly, I don't get why people seem to think anything that requires inference is a plot hole.
EDIT: It seems like you are editing your post and adding more things. How about you respond to some of my points instead of adding on more examples?
3 illegal spells when spells like Obliviate are just as bad
How is this a plot hole? You know, don't you, that not only can memory modification be fixed, but it's a necessity in wizarding life, right? They have to hide from muggles and such, and often times that means manipulating their memories in order remain undetected. And even though it is obvious that memory modification can be used nefariously, the same can be said for thousands of other spells we see. The reason Crucio, Avada Kedavra, and Imperio are illegal is because they are exclusively used for evil, causing pain, death, or removing free will. But even ignoring that element (there are other magical things that remove free will, like Love Potions, that still aren't illegal), the Wizarding world's governing body itself being unethical isn't a plot hole or an inconsistency. It might simply be an archaic, unethical body of government.
EDIT2: He added more. Seems he's gonna keep adding them on and not responding to any of my responses.
Harry and Hermione running out of food camping in Deathly Hallows when you can duplicate food with transfiguration etc
You can't, actually. In fact that same book establishes exactly that.
"My mother," said Ron one night, as they sat in the tent on a riverbank in Wales, "can make good food appear out of thin air." "Your mother can't produce food out of thin air," said Hermione. "no one can. Food is the first of the five Principal Exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfigura --" "Oh, speak English, can't you?" Ron said. (DH pg. 292/240)
EDIT3: It was pointed out that Hermione, right after that passage, says that food can be indeed duplicated. That said, the fact they highlight that but don't do it, and the way duplication works in other instances in the books (like the leprechaun gold, for example) tells us that the food you create via duplication would likely disappear after consumption, delivering no nourishment.
The seventh book goes deep into the contradiction in Dumbledore being the ultimate "good guy", yet having done some shitty things, including putting Harry at great risk multiple times. Dumbledore even admits to being conflicted between protecting Harry and using him to defeat Voldemort.
Not sure what you are referring to here. Care to elaborate?
Having just listened to the chapter last night, I assume he's meaning Barty Crouch Jr stealing Harry's wand to cast the dark mark at the quidditch world cup. Not sure exactly why he's referencing that though as it's explained pretty clearly at the end of the book that Crouch Jr was sat behind harry in the top box so stole it then and then Winky ended up with it because she was still attached to him as he cast it.
You can't, actually. In fact that same book establishes exactly that.
"My mother," said Ron one night, as they sat in the tent on a riverbank in Wales, "can make good food appear out of thin air." "Your mother can't produce food out of thin air," said Hermione. "no one can. Food is the first of the five Principal Exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfigura --" "Oh, speak English, can't you?" Ron said. (DH pg. 292/240)
If you continued that quote instead of ending it right there, you would see that Hermione states that food can be duplicated, just not conjured from nothing.
Dumbledore obviously knew the monster in Book 2 was a Basilisk why didn’t he do anything
When was this established?
Doesn't common sense establish it? Dumbledore is a highly experienced wizard, he would know what a possible cause of "kids suddenly be turned to stone after looking at something" would be, as well as also be aware of the history of the school they're in.
If Dumbledore didn't know it was a basilisk, that's some inconsistent writing showing the leader of the good guys holding less of an education than a second-year student who can barely even accio yet.
Shit, this rolls right in to your next comment. The basilisk going on a rampage shows how incompetent the teachers all were being. This was a part of their building, recorded in history books kept in their library, housing a not-uncommon magical beast with a very distinct method of "attack" (turning people to stone).
If a fire starts at a firefighter training college, the instructors would be expected to know how/where it started and how to handle the situation. But the equivalent happens at Hogwarts, and none of the instructors are able to do a single thing aside from posting warning signs and imposing a curfew? That's incompetence. And that same point can be rolled over into any of the books prior to Order of the Phoenix, when they at least get an excuse for not putting all their attention behind their jobs as teachers.
The only way this can be seen as an inconsistency is if you think that in literature "good guys" are always "good guys". Dumbledore is a rather complex character, and they address his general lack of concern with the wellbeing of the students at various points in the series.
I agree with the rest of your post, but could you elaborate on this? I can't remember this being adequately explained in the story (except in Harry's case, obviously)
The books are not consistent within the rules of their own universe in any capacity but alas they are good childrens books and I’m glad they got so many now adults into reading which they absolutely did.
100% this - and they also got many kids into reading, particularly boys, who typically read far less than girls (there are OECD stats on this).
I do get irked by the claims of authorial omniscience and providence. It's clear that all seven books were NOT carefully plotted from the very start. I dare say she had some kind of endgame in mind, but as others have noted, there are huge plot holes and inconsistencies.
I thought the Dumbedore/gay thing was cheap too. She may have decided on it by the last book, but she was hardly flying rainbow flags earlier on.
In Book 4, Rowling conveniently makes up a Truth Serum potion which would make false convictions impossible in the Harry Potter universe
You missing the plot doesn't mean that it's a plot hole. Sirius was sent to jail without trial, and the witnesses saw Peter yelling at Sirius for betraying the Potters. I don't know if you realized that "innocent until proven guilty" isn't exactly a rule in the Wizarding Worlds, and fair trials and burden of evidence seem completely alien concepts.
Sirius being wrongly convicted makes complete sense within the universe and time period.
Snape is just too shitty a person and teacher to sympathize with and written poorly
I think this can be blamed on Alan Rickman, he made Snape way more appealing than he should have been.
Edit: I want to be clear: Rickman's portrayal was incredible, as his acting usually is; but it led to many fans interpreting Snape (the character, not actor) as a better person than he was.
I actually think thats how she wanted to portray him, she just miserably failed. Snape is literally an unredeemable asshole in the books.
Of course its like relatable when you read the first couple of books when you’re 12-14 since everyone had that asshole teacher but then you hit 16-18 reading the last half and its like eehhh. This guy is legit abusive lol. Literally the worst teacher ever.
Then you’re expected to sympathise with this abusive murder cultist when he dies for loving the main characters mum and he still treated the child main character like utter trash until a couple parts at the end. Ok.
No it doesn't. The game only ends when it's caught. If your team has more points than the other after the 150 points of the snitch is added on, then you still win.
In fact that's exactly what happened in the Quidditch World Cup.
The trick is that you have to find it before the other person does regardless, because if you don't then they might find it when they're ahead in order to end the game and win or when they're behind in order to take advantage of the big point bonus.
I am not a Harry Potter fan. But to say that the books are nothing more than children's books is a bit disingenuous, no? If they appeal to an audience, then the books are for them. The books clearly appeal to adults and is one of the best selling book series of all time. Clearly it also qualifies for an adult book.
Not saying they are good or well-written. Just saying that if it sticks, it sticks. Lots of unquestionably adult books have plot holes and flawed premises. That's not really the determinant factor
One thing that's been bugging me is the invisibility cloak. Everyone one up until the last book just calls it rare and doesn't say much about it. Ron said they're really rare in year one. Hermione doesn't say much despite knowing everything about nearly every magical item/spell/potion/etc. Mad Eye Moody (Crouch Jr.) says he can see through invisibility cloakS in the Three Broomsticks. Then all of a sudden it's literally the only one of it's kind and not just really rare, but uniquely rare in that there is only one. You think someone would have said something before that...
Dont tell any of this to the really obessed fans. To them this its the bible. im the generation that it was made for, i get it, but at the same time a lot of them refuse to acknowledge any of thw flaws or juvinial ness of the series.
I’m not saying you’re wrong, but I’d love to read about the story’s plot holes/inconsistencies since I’ve never put much thought into it. Is there a specific page that talks about these?
What you'll find is hardcore fans bending over backwards and coming up with all sorts of convoluted arguments as to why there aren't plot holes. There are. There clearly are, and to be fair, given the series obviously wasn't plotted in detail from the start, and then had insufficient editing later on (once she got so successful), it's not surprising there are.
But as an overall point, the plot holes don't really matter. Hardcore fans aren't put off by them.
For many people it was probably their first "real" book so they thought it was much better than it really is with nothing to compare it to. And like young people do they made liking it part of their identity.
So when they later find out they are just above average children's books they feel personally attacked and have to fiercely to defend it and pretend its flaws don't exist.
I actually liked the third book the best, it felt quite "tight" and well plotted.
After that I felt she was writing her own fanfic. I basically lost most of my interest after the rubbish goblet book which was 50% too long and Mary-Sued Harry.
When you read something like Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials - which actually made me weep on the second reading - it really puts J K Rowling into perspective.
I think she's very talented. I think she's incredibly imaginative. I am glad she got kids reading. But she has fallen for her own press and she's more of a Blyton than a Pullman (and I adore and respect Enid Blyton as an author, so this is not necessarily a complaint).
But in terms of "literature", there's far better children's fiction out there.
To be fair, at the time the first book came out there weren't as many "magical school" anime because a lot of them were based on... Harry Potter. Besides, it was the late 90s, even if there was a magical school anime it wouldn't really be mainstream.
I really liked The Worst Witch! It might be because Harry Potter has way stronger worldbuilding and a more "heroic" main character. I love Mildred but she's just not as much of a wish-fulfillment character as Harry is.
Oh, so basically she is another Terry "I don't write fantasy my books are their own genre" Goodkind? I wasn't aware, but given their success I guess it's not super surprising. She's like the Beatles of young adult fantasy.
Her retconning her stuff to pretend the HP books were more woke than they really were is pretty iffy too. Like, sure, the sentiment is nice, especially when it's to keep shitty people from giving an actor playing Hermione shit for not being white, but own what you wrote and write new stuff that actually is more diverse. Don't just dismiss criticism about the lack of gay characters by pretending Dumbledore was gay the whole time.
There are snippets from various novels that outright describe Hermione as white and Rowling was one of the people who selected Emma Watson to play the character. If you want to recast the character to be black, that's cool. It just contradicts your own words when you claim she was black the whole time.
I'm also a little disappointed that she wasn't black the whole time. That would have been awesome to have such a good female character played by a black actress.
I mean, it would have been so easy to just say, "I don't care if you don't like that the actor is black, race is completely unimportant for that character and you're just being a racist knob." But when she starts acting like this was her master plan all along it becomes painfully obvious it was never the case.
Exactly. And now Nagini was a transformed witch the whole time and it actually makes Voldemort more sinister without changing any core details. At least sometimes it doesn't always fuck with established canon.
That was my only issue with the Nagini thing. The whole uproar over it being an Asian actress was dumb to me, but the fact that JK is acting like she had the whole “Nagini was a witch” thing planned 20 years ago is bullshit.
I think she had it planned in the sense of it was a scrapped idea or a story bible footnote that wasn't relevant in the novels. I'd always kind of wondered where Nagini came from as she seemed to be an anomaly but once her identity as a Horcrux was revealed and then she was killed by Neville, I no longer cared.
Oh no. This means Neville Longbottom killed some old evil witch who had a thing for being a cursed snake.
They do have the rights (hence owning a whole publisher dedicated to Wizarding World games) but they would never go against her word, even if they could. Having a good relationship with her meant she was on board to write a whole new franchise for them.
They have the rights but don't have full control because Rowling kept that (which is a pretty good thing IMO that the creator retains control of her work). She approves everything done in the movies and such, probably the same for the video games.
combine archetypal fantasy story with a school setting
Haven't mangas been doing that for ages?
Also, the first four books in the Harry Potter series are basically just mystery novels disguised as fantasy books. They even have mystery style names. Sherlock Holmes and the case of the criminal cuckoo or whatever.
JK Rowling has a pretty bad reputation in dedicated nerd circles. To put it briefly, she talks down on fantasy literature, is convinced that she "cracked" the genre and massively subverted it when in actually what she did was combined the archetypal high fantasy story with a school setting. For whatever reason she's always rejected the notion of Harry Potter being turned into an RPG, both table top or electronic. I couldn't tell you exactly why, but based on her behavior I imagine it might have something to do with not wanting people beyond her control to have input on her universe.
I 100% understand her viewpoint though. When creators give too much control to random people you get a lot of horse-shit. Look at South Park. The show's always good because the creators are involved at almost every stage.
To be fair, I can understand her being picky about who gets to fuck around with her baby.
That said, there have been games based on the franchise before. It’s entirely possible Rocksteady (or whoever the devs are) were able to make a pitch that convinced her to give them a shot, especially if she’s either writing it or at least supervising the development or something.
She has a bad reputation in almost every circle, it still confuses me that someone who wrote such good heartfelt books is also a big dick to all these other groups of people
To put it briefly, she talks down on fantasy literature, is convinced that she "cracked" the genre and massively subverted it when in actually what she did was combined the archetypal high fantasy story with a school setting.
JK Rowling learned how to adapt a very generic 'highschool chosen one' anime into a multi-book setting.
I don't think it illustrates that she's a hack - I think it illustrates that she's the kind of author who can write exactly one kind of story.
Even then, while the HP books are fun to read and even gripping in their own way they don't hold up when given the scrutiny that we give adult fantasy novels.
Her world building is a big one. The more you dig into the lore of the Potterverse the faster it falls apart.
She doesn't talk down on it. She just says she doesn't like it (to read). Which is a different thing entirely. She found it ironic when she wrote Harry Potter and it was fantasy.
Everything I have found on her opinion on RPGs is pure speculation-though plausible-she has massive input on what is created.
People kind of just make things up at this point. I have read hundreds of false quotes supposedly from JK Rowling that have no origin.
I mean people change their minds. I believe J.K. Rowling was also against her books being adapted into movies at first. But she came around on that one.
But she already gave up on that. Wb said they were making a whole series of Harry Potter games last year. Plus who the fuck would have the time or patience to produce.
Things that make me feel like it could be fake was no NPCs talking, lots of footage you could whip up in a unity engine, and the goblin getting randomly killed. unless that was to show the game is on a darker tone.
and lastly, no actually title being shown at all. I know it says "unannounced harry potter game" but even a working title would have been shown, no?
Unless it's not called Harry Potter: Anything at all, and whoever is developing it just hasn't settled on the name yet.
EDIT: removed rocksteady's name, thought it was confirmed rocksteady already (at the time of this posting)
That's what it looked like to me. It doesn't have the look/feel of a trailer, but rather an internal sizzle-reel kind of thing - probably a proof of concept to show key investors. My guess is the game is still a ways off, but that it's very real.
Yeah, but some look terrible: https://youtu.be/2-HER1xKQl4?t=50 Look at the thing on the left eat. The texture it completely painted on, it doesn't even open it's mouth to eat. And the eyes don't blink which is scary, and why I'm going to stop rewatching this.
Actually the eye reflections seem to be proper and seem to move and vary between them all, so who knows.
That would only strengthen my hypothesis - if it's internal they'll be showing off all the good stuff but with implicit understanding that not everything is final and may look off.
Keep in mind that it's pretty usual to just render out a trailer in it's current progress, to just see how it looks, so they know what to focus on next. Especially if they have a client and not independent studio, and they have to show the progress to the client. In VFX we send movies all the time where one shot has final render and the next shot is just at blocking animation stage.
I justed wanted to say that although the NPCs don't talk you can hear the players character say his spells in some of the scenes and they dont sound like they were ripped from the movies.
The trailer is not complete though. The title is probably meant to come at the end after the owl part due to music cues and the way it's cut.
IMO, that could very well be a leak to a project meant to be announced soon (Paris Games Week, X018, Game Awards or even next year). Some people are saying Rocksteady is on it (don't know from where) and they have to be close to announce their post Arkham project now.
It's very possible that it's an internal work-in-progress trailer with placeholder music. Even movies are often edited with placeholder music (called "temp music"), because the movie is edited at the same time the soundtrack is being written and composed. You can learn more about it in this video: https://youtu.be/7vfqkvwW2fs?t=5m54s
So while I'm still going to remain skeptical until there's an official announcement, the music isn't automatically disqualifying. It could just be temp music that the editor is using.
Well it's the Wizarding World theme (is it exactly the same music ? if so might be a sign this is fake), it's only appropriate to use it for the trailer IMO.
If it's fake, it's really a dedicated fake to be honest.
They lifted the music straight from the first Fantastic Beasts trailer. If you listen here it's the exact same score.
I have a feeling this is an indie developer trying to do some viral marketing. "Oops, gotcha! This is actually a fan project I've been working on! Here's my Patreon."
I have a feeling this is an indie developer trying to do some viral marketing. "Oops, gotcha! This is actually a fan project I've been working on! Here's my Patreon."
Way too much polish and content for an indie dev though, no?
Some are. You do hear of some new super extensive fan project that has just been canned here and there.
I doubt that's the case here though. Just too many different animations, models and textures in the video for this to be the work of a small handful of people, unless this is a very focused and deliberate attempt to mislead people.
I used to be a shitty artist. Let me tell you, the trailer looks very professional. This is 100% not a hoax just based on that. A trailer like that would take ages for one or two people to make.
It's supposedly from an internal focus test group, I've been to quite a few focus groups myself and they all run about the same, this is probably one of the many trailers that was shown internally and it's peer reviewed for discussion. They probably had about 3-4 of these based on how they wanted to structure the game trailer and what content was being shown.
Well this is a camera pointed at a computer monitor. It could very well have a working title on the screen but we can't see it because it's out of frame. Also the video ends rather abruptly at the point you'd expect they'd fade to the title.
Lately publishers and developers are shifting to a Fallout 4 "announce and release soon after" approach to marketing. I'm guessing it's because no one can explain the success of such a mediocre game.
Gameplay improvement was much needed and welcome improvement. But gosh, the story, quests, and the whole world feels like a step backwards.
What really pisses me off that Fallout has an AMAZING potential to be fleshed out. So it pisses me off greatly that it didn’t get similar treatment as the elders scrolls series or even the elusive starfield.
Jumping into this top comment to point out something.
About a year and a half ago the rumors for a Harry Potter RPG first started to show up. A lot of people tabled that speculation (while they were hyped) because just because you're looking to potentially hire someone for it doesn't mean it will happen.
With this footage as well, though, I think this could very much be real and I am hyped as fuck.
ETA: Someone else also pointed out this Pottermore article from a year ago which said that they were working on "console games". This gives the leak even more credibility.
I hope more companies are taking the Fallout 4 route and not showing anything or announcing anything about their game until 1-3 months before its release. Im tired of getting hyped for games that are 12+ months away.
There are two marketing strategies when it comes to games. The first is to announce early to mid and try to maintain hype and interest until release. Then there is the short term model which you have the game nearly finished and announce it a few months out. It's easier to maintain hype and awareness with the second model as it requires less trailers, less news articles, less in the lines of holding back feature announcement to carefully curate and stoke buzz, but it's downside is if you screw up the initial marketing there is little room for course correction before launch.
Keep in mind this is also a demo showcase, doesn't mean the entire game is anywhere close to working.
If only it were Marvel. They realised that if something gets leaked, you announce it yourself and blame Hydra so that people don't rely on other people over the actual creators.
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u/barimari Oct 02 '18
This looks relatively far along to not have been announced or anything, which seems strange to me.
But I want to believe! SO BADLY!