Hogwarts Legacy has built up a fair bit of goodwill with fans, after a solid first outing impressed many with its RPG elements and approach to an already-established canon drawing plenty of praise.
Sure, there were absolutely some things to improve upon if we did ever get a sequel, but all the building blocks were there to turn a very good game into a truly great one on its next outing.
In what will likely comes as pretty disappointing news to many, there are several signs that the follow-up from Avalanche Studios could be a very different proposition indeed, particularly if recent job postings on the company’s official website are to be believed.
As many of you will now know, there has been a marked shift over towards live service and multiplayer elements in games, even if they don’t particularly need them. Much of that comes down to the earning potential of those features, but they are becoming more pervasive, particularly in areas where you would not usually expect to see them.
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As first reported by ComicBook.com, Avalanche Studios are now hiring staff to work on an “online multiplayer RPG,” leading many to speculate that the next Hogwarts Legacy could be an MMO of some kind.
Given the studio tends to only work on one game at a time, it's absolutely a fair assumption, particularly when you consider that rumours about the next game potentially being multiplayer have swirled for some time.
That's not to say there's absolutely no desire for multiplayer elements from the game's community, as we have seen several people attempt to institute multiplayer elements for the first game via modding.
What feels particularly galling at this time is the fact that they may leave the single-player RPG elements behind entirely, despite them being the foundational success of the original.
Though long term revenue is a little more up in the air when compared with multiplayer games like League of Legends or World of Warcraft, there is absolutely a place for single-player RPGs in the modern gaming landscape, particularly for games like Hogwarts Legacy.
The whole idea is for players to get lost in a world that they grew up with, realised properly in video game form for the first time. If there are a bunch of players griefing your every class, it could quickly become somewhere you don't want to spend any time.
Here's hoping Avalanche Studios is simply working on something else, even if that wouldn't make a lot of sense.
Topics: Hogwarts Legacy, Harry Potter