Warner Bros has shut down Harry Potter: Magic Awakened just over a year since it was launched on PC

Warner Bros announced that Harry Potter: Magic Awakened will be shutting down in the Americas in October. The game was launched in Europe and Oceania just over a year ago.

Harry Potter: The Magic Awakened's path to the PC was a winding one. It was launched in China and Taiwan on mobile devices in 2021, and then went worldwide in July 2023. This included Windows, although the servers for the PC versions were limited to Southeast Asia.

It doesn't seem like a big deal. I downloaded the official PC client to check it out earlier today, and the game worked fine. However, NetEase runs its own separate account system: You can't link a WB mobile account (which you use if you are located outside Asia) to a NetEase PC account.

All of this seems unnecessary, but it's not important now. Warner announced in June 2023 that it was "finalizing development of a PC-version of Harry Potter: Magic Awakened" and would share more information on its release as soon as available. But now, all of that is off the table.

A message on magicawakened.com says that "the time has come for Harry Potter Magic Awakened servers to be officially closed in the Americas and Europe territories on October 29th 2024," The game will be available to players in Asia including the Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong Macau, Taiwan and other selected Asia and MENA regions.

Harry Potter: Magic Awakened is no longer available on Google Play or the App Store. In-game purchases have also been discontinued. The game will continue to operate as normal until October 29, 2018.

There may be a way out for PC users. Warner's magicawakened.com website doesn't have much going on, but if you pop over to harrypottermagicawakened.com you'll find much more detailed information about the game and a working link to the PC client. NetEase runs the servers, so they should continue to work.

Reddit users are considering switching to NetEase, but this is widely seen as a flawed solution since it would mean losing all progress made so far. Characters and items, some of which are expensive, will not transfer due to separate account systems. A few players are hopeful that NetEase may open a few servers across North America and Europe. However, this is not likely.

Harry Potter: Magic Awakened's failure stands in stark contrast to Hogwarts Legacy. Warner hailed Hogwarts Legacy as "the best-selling video game of the entire industry worldwide" at the beginning of 2024. Warner has been in a downward spiral since then. Ironically, the studio announced in March that, after the disastrous failure of Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League it would increase its focus on mobile and multi-platform "free-to-play" gaming, with a particular emphasis on four of its core franchises, Mortal Kombat, Game of Thrones, DC and Harry Potter. In fact, we now have a free-to-play Harry Potter mobile and PC game that I found to be a decent wizarding experience based on the few minutes that I played with it. WB has pulled the plug after one year. I guess nothing is certain after all.

I've contacted Warner Bros. and NetEase to get more information about the Harry Potter: Magic Awakened shut down, and if it will still be playable on PC through SEA servers. I will update this post if I hear back.