The upcoming Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions aims to bring the wizarding sport to life via the medium of videogames on September 3 for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Series S and PC. However, translating the sport to another medium, a few rule changes have been made.
I adore the Harry Potter books, but even I realised when reading them all those years ago that scoring in Quidditch doesn’t make sense. While a regular goal with the Quaffle is worth ten points, catching the Gold Snitch is worth 150 and immediately ends the game. In other words, the team that gets the Snitch almost always wins. In fact, one team can score 14 straight goals against the opposition and still lose if the other team’s Seeker catches the Snitch by accident, possibly by pulling a Potter and damn near swallowing the thing.
So, for the upcoming game, a new gameplay trailer has revealed a few key changes to the rules. Firstly, catching the Snitch no longer ends the match. And secondly, it only awards 30 points now. These two changes should hopefully ensure that while snatching the Snitch is important, it doesn’t guarantee a win. The first team to hit 100 points will win.
It’s not clear if the Snitch can be caught more than once though. If it can only be grabbed a singular time, what will the Seeker do for the rest of the match?
As for the rest of the trailer, it notes very early on that Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions does not include any microtransactions. It’s kind of sad that we live in a world where that’s a selling point now, rather than expected.
The rest of the trailer details what else we can expect from the game, including its single-player campaign where you kickoff by playing in the Weasley’s back garden, aided by some very familiar faces. You’ll be able to level up your characters, choose from a bunch of customisation options and more.
Finally, the trailer asks fans to watch out for future seasons and events, implying that while there won’t be microtransactions, there probably will be season passes or something similar.
Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions will be available on September 3, and will free as part of your PlayStation Plus subscription until September 30, provided you add it to your library.