If Niantic Creates ‘Harry Potter GO,’ It Will Be More Popular Than ‘Pokémon GO’ — Here Are The Reasons Why [Op-Ed]
It has not even been a month since its release, but Pokémon Go is proving to be the most-popular smartphone app game ever. Within its short time available to download and play, Pokémon Go news has dominated social media feeds and entertainment streams. Some of the reported news was positive, such as how Pokémon Go is giving young adults an initiative to work out and be healthy, and the reported educational benefits. Yet, some of the news was negative, such as Pokémon Go players trespassing on private property to “catch em’ all.” In one instance, two players were shot at in Canada.
Pokémon Go Will Test All The ‘Bugs’ So Niantic Can Create A Better Game In The Future
Prior to Pokémon Go, Niantic — the company responsible for creating the game — had four years of experience creating phone game apps that utilize location and augmented reality. In 2012, their first product, Field Trip, was a location-based app which acts as a guide to finding cool, hidden, and unique things in the world around the user. Next was Ingress, a game that utilized augmented reality. These two games had attributes that would be implemented into the successful Pokémon Go. However, never has location and augmented reality been used for such a game with such girth.
As a result, Pokémon Go has its fair share of issues, primarily the app crashing due to overload. These “bugs” will eventually be worked out if Niantic were to move forward with a Harry Potter Go game.
The Harry Potter Franchise Is More Popular Than Pokémon
Before this topic is touched upon, it should be noted that Pokémon (as a whole) is one of the most successful and highly profitable franchises to ever be created. By 2005, it made over $30 billion. By 2014, its revenue was roughly $50 billion. Comparing the numbers, Pokémon makes more money than the Harry Potter book series, which is worth $15 billion right now. However, we are forgetting about product sales, advertising, video games, and even the movies. The latter by itself has made over $10 billion at the box office alone total. Who knows how much the home release has made, especially with Blu-ray re-releases, special editions, and collector’s editions.
If that analysis alone doesn’t enforce that Harry Potter is more popular than Pokémon, consider the demographics of both franchises. Though there are exceptions, most people who enjoy Pokémon these days range from children to mostly people in their 20s who grew up on it. Harry Potter, though originally catered towards people attending elementary and junior/middle school, has expanded to all age demographics thanks to the movies. Harry Potter has fans who are single-digit aged to those advanced in their years.
Players Could Do More In Harry Potter Go Compared To Pokémon Go
Pokémon Go is a lot of fun, but it is limited to what is available in the manga, anime, and video game series. To be fair, the only classes everyone seems to be acquainted with are Pokémon trainers, Pokémon breeders, and Pokémon rangers. Some games had players play the lesser known Pokémon occupations like Pokémon photographer in Pokémon Snap, but generally, Pokémon fans want to do what Ash Ketchum does in the series.
Given the depth the Harry Potter Franchise has, there are numerous positions players can play, which incorporates a more complex gaming experience. For example, players can choose to be professors (Albus Dumbledore), gamekeepers (Rubeus Hagrid), magizoologists (Newt Scamander), witch journalists (Rita Skeeter), Quidditch players (Ginny Weasley), Aurors (Harry Potter), or many others.
As for what players can learn, they can collect power-ups (cauldrons, brooms, etc.) to enhance their magical skills, learn new spells, engage in duels, and captures fantastic beasts. Summarized, J.K. Rowling added so much in the Harry Potter franchise, a possible Harry Potter Go game is almost limitless on what it can possibly be.
All that is mentioned above is just opinions based on what has been analyzed over the years. People will always have their preferences. Some people like Harry Potter more than Pokémon and vice versa. Some like both equally while some don’t care about either at all. Ultimately, if the players are having fun, that is all that matters, right?
[Image via Warner Bros. Studios Promotions for Harry Potter Film Series]
