Harry Potter game Magic Awakened has been announced to shut down its servers just over a year after its main release, leaving players disappointed. Here are the details!
On Monday, August 26, 2024, Warner Bros. Games, the co-publisher of Harry Potter: Magic Awakening, announced that it’s shutting down the game in Western regions effective immediately. The same day, the game was removed from official app stores, making it no longer available for download.
Why was the game shut down? Can players still access it? These are some of the questions many Harry Potter: Magic Awakened players are asking. In this article, we’ll discuss everything you need to know about the game’s shutdown.
Harry Potter Game Shutdown: Everything You Should Know
Harry Potter: Magic Awakened was a popular mobile collectible card role-playing game known for its outstanding gameplay. After its initial launch in September 2021 in China, Taiwan, and a few other Asian countries, it gained significant traction in those regions. It was later released internationally on June 23, 2024, and continued attracting a global audience despite complaints about costly in-game purchases.
The unfortunate news is that, just over a year after its release, the Harry Potter game publisher announced, “The time has come for Harry Potter: Magic Awakened to officially close its servers in the Americas, Europe, and Oceania territories on October 29, 2024. The game will continue to be available for players in Asia, including Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, as well as other select Asia and MENA territories.”
Starting August 26, 2024, the Harry Potter game will no longer be available for download on the App Store and Google Play Store, and in-app purchases will be disabled for players in any regions where Warner Bros. Games hosts its servers. By the end of October, the game servers will be fully discontinued, making it impossible to play the game officially any longer.
Sadly, players will need to come to terms with the fact that the game has ended without completing its story if they’re not in NetEase publishing territories. This trend is not new, especially with Warner Bros., who have previously pulled the plug on their mobile games, such as shutting down Mortal Kombat: Onslaught after just a year.
What More?
With Harry Potter: Magic Awakening shutting down in the Americas, Europe, and Oceania, it appears the game struggled to gain early traction in Western regions, unlike successes such as Black Myth: Wukong. It may have especially fallen short of meeting its financial benchmarks from microtransactions. However, this is our perspective, as Warner Bros. has yet to disclose the official reason for the decision.
Since the original developer wants to continue running the game in its jurisdiction, it’s reasonable to question whether server transfers might be possible. However, WB Games has confirmed on its FAQs page that this is not an option.
They also stated, “Players will not be able to receive a refund on past purchases, but you will be able to spend your remaining in-game currency and items before the game closes on October 29, 2024,” which adds to the disappointing news as all player purchases are gone as well.
On a brighter note, Unbroken Studios’ Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions, set to release on September 3, 2024, offers a new addition to the franchise and may help offset the disappointment caused by the shutdown of Magic Awakening.
Additionally, if you’re open to starting the Harry Potter game afresh, you could find a way to switch your device’s region to China to continue playing the game on the NetEase servers.
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