Harry Potter Comes to Home
by SealWyf, HSM Editor
Well, that explains the owls in the Hub.
They’ve been hanging out for a few days now, sitting on the rail of the dance pond, flying around the space, perching on the architecture. What do owls remind you of? Ten to one, it’s everybody’s favorite boy wizard, Harry Potter, and his beloved familiar, Hedwig the Snowy Owl.
It wasn’t the only hint of things to come. Granzella had already produced a Snowy Owl companion in both flying and walking forms, as well as an item that lets your owl sit on your head. And then there were the magical locomotions. Both Granzella and nDreams have recently produced ride-able brooms, and Granzella also released a magic flying cape. Looking back on it, we really should have suspected something was up. Something big. Something very, very magical.
Of course what might have been up was simply savvy marketing. After all, we also have gotten lots of Superhero, Anime and Goth items recently, and they are tied to anything. There was no reason to think that the magical gear was any different. And flying brooms are sort of generic. It doesn’t have to be about Quidditch. As for the Owl companion — that might just be something the developers figured Harry Potter fans would buy. There are plenty of other not-quite-copyrighted items on Home — costumes that sort of look like Power Rangers, for instance. Nothing to see here folks. It’s just a Snowy Owl.
So when the video appeared on YouTube on March 18, I was blown away. And so, I suspect, was a large part of Home’s community. If you’ve missed it, here it is. Take a few minutes to digest this, and think about the implications:
That’s right. Harry Potter is coming to Home.
Actually, what is coming to Home is Pottermore, J. K. Rowling’s web-based continuation and expansion of the Potter universe. When you visit the Pottermore site, the first thing you, as a Home user, will notice is that the sign-in screen is branded by Sony. I can’t think of a much better example of “make.believe”, and it does explain how Sony landed the rights for one of the biggest, most exclusive pieces of intellectual property out there. Anyone who has been following the saga of Rowling’s rise to fame knows how tightly she controls her creation. She’s not going to let just anyone waltz in and exploit it. If she has given the go-ahead for Pottermore to come to Home, you know it will be done right.
The SCEAsia blog has more information from today’s press release, as well as some publicity stills, which I have shamelessly grabbed.
The first Pottermore offering will appear in April, and will include Diagon Alley and Hogwarts Express public spaces. There will be games to play, trading cards to collect, and things to buy — fourteen different cats, owls and toads for familiar companions, for instance. And of course, wizard outfits, school uniforms and house robes. (I wonder if I can be a member of both Gryffindor and Ravenclaw?) And there will be tie-ins with the main Pottermore website. Linking your PSN ID with your Pottermore account will give you access to additional content. (If you see PatronusWolfsbane3885 on Pottermore, that’s me.) By all indications, this is just the first content release of many. We have seven massive books to work through. This is going to be huge.
Can you tell that I’m seriously geeked out about this?
To be honest, I’m a bit worried about the demographics. In my experience, the Harry Potter books appeal most strongly to young teens and adult women, while I get the definite impression that PlayStation Home is full of older teenage boys, most of whom have severe cases of testosterone poisoning. Will Home users greet Pottermore with the enthusiasm it deserves? Or will they complain that zapping their friends with wands in a Wizard’s Duel is nowhere near as much fun as mowing them down with semiautomatic weapons?
I’m sure some Home users will scorn Pottermore as “kid stuff” and yet another money grab by the evil barons of Home, who insist on monetizing stuff just because they have to make a living. Well, let them complain. I don’t care. There’s plenty of room in Home for all of us.
And perhaps the Home tie-in will lure new users over from the Pottermore website, into a three-dimensional, deeply interactive version of the world they have come to love from the books and movies. Why just read about Diagon Alley when you can experience it? Why just watch the Hogwarts Express in a movie, when you can walk down the aisle and chat with other riders? And perhaps this new crop of users will look around Home and see other things they like, and other games that are fun to play. And maybe they will stay.
I hope they do. We need new blood. Lately, we have all gotten way too tired and cynical. We need the kind of urgent optimism that Rowling’s universe encourages. We may not be up against Voldemort, but we are battling a scrambled inventory. We may not have to face Dementors, but we have just experienced a frustrating spate of M-10 network errors. We may not have a boorish Cousin Dudley, but we can’t walk through the Hub without being pestered by trolls. There are worse places for the cheerful determination of Harry and his friends than the spaces of PlayStation Home.
March 19th, 2013 by SealWyf_ | 2 comments
SealWyf is a museum database programmer, who has been active in online communities since before the Internet, and in console gaming since the PS1. In games, she prefers the beautiful and quirky, and anything with a strong storyline. She is obsessed with creating new aesthetic experiences in PlayStation Home.
Share
| Tweet |
I loved Harry Potter! I can’t wait for the first of this new content to come to Home. I can feel my wand tingling. Exspelliamus trolls!
Though I have only read the first book years ago when it came out and have seen all of the movies instead, I am looking forward to this as it will breathe new life into the community as you have said. People who love this series will flock into Home if they own a PS3.