Announced as one of the biggest successes of 2023, and probably rightly so, Hogwarts Legacy has been under the fire of intense controversy since the start of 2022. In question? JK Rowling’s questionable Twitter babble.
[Mis à jour le 1er février à 14h31] The history of Hogwarts Legacy becomes more intricate. The game which seemed to bring together all the elements ensuring its worldwide success is the source of intense and brutal debates on social networks. When some see the purchase of this new title from Warner Bros. Games as an apology for the transphobic ideals blithely spread on social networks by a certain JK Rowling, others endorse it as a real shield against cancel-culture. Two extreme opinions that tear Twitter and Reddit apart and that we can’t help but point out as very far from the primary essence of this new release: video games and love of the Harry Potter universe.
Many calls for a boycott of Hogwarts Legacy
Hogwarts Legacy is dividing crowds on Twitter and Reddit, with some calling for a full boycott of the game, and others claiming its purchase as a snub to cancel-culture. A petition would also be browsing the web (although it is totally untraceable editor’s note) and would have collected more than a million signatures by calling for a total boycott of the game. An extremely divisive situation and a completely new fact in video game history. But why is Hogwarts Legacy so controversial?
These numerous calls for a boycott of the RPG from Warner Bros. Games have their origin in the growing unpopularity of JK Rowling, the billionaire author behind the famous Harry Potter books. The latter has indeed adopted controversial positions on transgender people through questionable tweets for a few years. She thus drew the wrath of various LGBTQIA+ communities pointing to her remarks as transphobic, and the applause of various anti-woke groups (including none other than Vladimir Poutin) who made her against her will an icon against the “cancel -culture”. JK’s various nauseous outings Rowling on Twitter have also pushed a majority of the actors of the Harry Potter films (including Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson) to express their support for LGBTQIA+ communities and to distance themselves from the British author.
And in the collateral damage of this uphill struggle is Hogwarts Legacy, unfortunately for Warner Bros. Games and Avalanche Software. This next release is considered too connivent with the ideas of JK Rowling by some of the groups detracting from the author, who associate her purchase with open support for transphobic and homophobic ideas and massively call for her boycott. An outrage that prompted Warner Bros. Games to break away from Rowling and say:
“JK Rowling is not directly involved in the creation of the game, although her extraordinary body of writing forms the foundation of all Wizarding World projects. We even add that it will be possible, in Hogwarts Legacy, to use inclusive options, allowing the creation of trans characters. We’re going to stay focused on the game we’ve built and the great work of studio Avalanche. We want everyone who loves the Harry Potter universe to love these stories and characters.“
A position that has failed to ease the tensions that still tear Twitter and Reddit today, since many voices are still calling on players not to buy Hogwarts Legacy. They also point to the links between the goblins of the wizarding world, the game’s main antagonists, and the anti-Semitic caricatures that became prevalent in the early twentieth century. While JK Rowling’s stance on this uncomfortable second topic remains unknown, her open transphobia and suspicion of anti-Semitism are many reasons enough to cry out for a boycott of Hogwarts Legacy, despite the inclusion of transgender options in the system. game character creation.
This is what prompted the famous video game discussion forum ResetEra to ban any conversation oriented around the game. The site expressed itself by affirming that it did not wish to contribute to the fact that JK Rowling “uses its money and influence to promote transphobic ideas and legislation.“A blow for the game, which is deprived of one of the largest discussion forums in the world, and further proof of the harmful influence of the comments of the British author, which have moreover become particularly virulent in approaching the release of the game.
For many players, on the other hand, it is unjustified to draw links between the pathetic outings of a billionaire author on issues far beyond her area of relevance, and the work of a studio dedicated to providing an immersive experience to millions of fans. It is also out of the question to see the purchase of the game as the adoption of a political or social stance, whether “anti-cancel culture”, or transphobic. For many, this is all about video games and the love of a legendary franchise, an opinion that is hard not to agree with. But be careful, you shouldn’t take away from the video game its aspect of a relevant political medium, just note that it’s an aspect that Hogwarts Legacy really seems to be devoid of.
While prancing for several weeks at the top of sales on the PC game platform Steam, Hogwarts Legacy is still and always at the heart of an intense controversy. Following calls for a boycott due to JK Rowling’s more than dubious positions on transgender issues, many PC users of the platform attacked Hogwarts Legacy by trying to submit it to a “review-bombing” even before its release. As a reminder, “review-bombing” is a practice consisting of a massive influx of negative reviews on a game’s page aimed at discouraging potential undecided buyers. Except that this exercise is only possible when the Steam rating system is open to the public, ie after the release of a game.
That’s why critics of Hogwarts Legacy have used a completely different method in recent days, employing the principle of “tags”, these little adjectives that allow Steam to list games according to their content, whether they are range from the simple mentions “FPS” “Multiplayer” “Open-world”, to the more complex “Gore”, “Horror” or even “Genocide simulator”. And you will have understood, the detractors of Hogwarts Legacy, firmly determined to prevent its success, have been relentless in applying extremely unsavory “tags” to the future release of Warner Bros. Games. “World War II”, “NSFW”, “Genocide Simulator”, the attempts at negative labeling have been numerous, prompting Steam to clean up these user suggestions, and to list Hogwarts Legacy under the right criteria.