Hogwarts Legacy is the best selling new release of 2023 as of September 30 (Read Mod Posts)

[RDragon]

Impressive, but a shame.

In other subject, saying that it should be nominated for TGA and it isn't for ~reasons~ is just kind of silly. It sold amazing, but it's not a game that was utterly loved or dominated the conversation. I don't even see where one would think it should be that's it's such a glaring omission.

But hey, I see we are calling people posers for very legitimate grievances already, so that's not a conversation worth having.

Person, I was the only who said that. We don't need to drag the entire forum into this.

And I said most of the people online are posers because they act the part of moral outraged when they really don't care. It's all for show because when you begged them to stand up for moral rights by doing something simple like voting, they disappear. I can't tell you how many times this happened to me.

 

[Koni]

Hogwarts Legacy is like The Super Mario Bros. Movie in that both are just alright but they're high-budget adaptations that respect their source material and as such will be well-loved by fans of said source material - which there happen to be a whole lot of. I don't think The Super Mario Bros. Movie's gonna be nominated for any Oscars. Plus, the best-selling games of the year are often the usual Call of Duty and FIFA titles, which don't really get nominated for much, if at all.

Yes, JK Rowling's views (which really aren't - or at least, shouldn't - be political) did play a role, and likely a significant one at that. But honestly with how stacked this year is, the difference would've only been one or two nominations. Again, it's not like a critically-well recieved contender was being snubbed here. This isn't Forza Horizon 5 or Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Starfield was the next big Bethesda game and it only accrued a single nomination to it's name.

Going back to the topic at hand, though, it is nonetheless impressive that Hogwarts Legacy managed to become the best selling game of the year. That's no easy feat. It once again shows the sales power a licensed IP can have if you actually put in the effort. We've seen that a lot across many mediums this year. Not just with the aforementioned Mario movie but also The Last of Us as well.

 

[Gotdatmoney]

And this is why I didn't want to talk about Harry Potter. The point I was making was that the game is being punished despite the people who made it not having to do with Rowling is politics. You're not actually hurting Rowling by doing anything to this game, instead you're doing harm to the people who already worked in a high-stress industry. Which is why I said it was politics.

Choosing not to buy Hogwarts Legacy because you don't agree with JK Rowling is not bringing harm to developers anymore than not buying Hogwarts Legacy because you hate open world games. The end result is consumers choosing how to spend their money and no product is inherently entitled to anyone's spend. You're framing this like it's political but all of this is economics, business and consumption.

Similarly, no product is inherently deserving of free mindshare or promotion. What, WB and Avalanche are entitled to free marketing just because? Cause that's all The Game Awards are. Free marketing.

Ignoring that HL has an 83 on Opencritic which is outdone by many games this year, it isn't punishing the developer if people choose to obstain from boosting an IP of someone whose views they disagree with. When an IP and a creator are closely linked, both popularity and scrutiny of that product move in correlation with that person's image. Are toy makers being punished of people buy less HP merch because of Rowling? Are printing houses being punished if sales of HP are soft because people stop recommending it as a must read?

This is a slippery slope argument that is poor at its core. These are products and this is capitalism. Nothing is promised or deserved. So what reason is there for you to make a stand on this game?

 

[Megiddo]

As usual, the controversy provided a massive Streisand-adjacent effect which attracted attention and more potential buyers than there would have been without the controversy. There was a bunch of free advertisement from all the conflicts, and I have no doubt that HL benefited massively from all the Twitter and other online... "discussions" let's call them.

 

[allan-bh]

Hogwarts Legacy isn't GOTY contender in a year like 2023, but zero nominations for Game Awards indicates for me people voted based on personal beliefs about JK Rowling, instead of doing a technical evaluation of the game.

 

[Lelouch0612]

Let's bring back the discussion into focus. The TGA nominations tangent has run its course.

 

[RDragon]

Choosing not to buy Hogwarts Legacy because you don't agree with JK Rowling is not bringing harm to developers anymore than not buying Hogwarts Legacy because you hate open world games. The end result is consumers choosing how to spend their money and no product is inherently entitled to anyone's spend. You're framing this like it's political but all of this is economics, business and consumption.

Similarly, no product is inherently deserving of free mindshare or promotion. What, WB and Avalanche are entitled to free marketing just because? Cause that's all The Game Awards are. Free marketing.

Ignoring that HL has an 83 on Opencritic which is outdone by many games this year, it isn't punishing the developer if people choose to obstain from boosting an IP of someone whose views they disagree with. When an IP and a creator are closely linked, both popularity and scrutiny of that product move in correlation with that person's image. Are toy makers being punished of people buy less HP merch because of Rowling? Are printing houses being punished if sales of HP are soft because people stop recommending it as a must read?

This is a slippery slope argument that is poor at its core. These are products and this is capitalism. Nothing is promised or deserved. So what reason is there for you to make a stand on this game?

When I said punishing developers, I wasn't talking about buying or not buy. I am talking about how people on the internet gave the developers a hard time. A lot people on the internet acted like the developers were bad people for working on Hogwarts, which is unfair to them.

When I said political I am not talking about what Rowling said, which is horrible. I am talking about it not being selected for any award. While I'm sure a lot didn't vote for Hogwarts for moral reasons, one person who was on the panel basically admitted that a lot of journalists didn't because it was too polarizing, which is politics.

Not sure where I said that they were entitled to anything. I am of the personal belief that Hogwarts shouldn't have gotten any awards. I am certain WB and the developers knew it would never win anything anywhere and are more than happy to take the money and run. I am honestly surprised people thought it would GOTY since it was an 83 in a year full of 90s and I'm almost certain most are just saying that because they want to get arise off the internet.

Edit: Saw the note, so I will stop posting.

 

[Tokuiten]

Hogwarts Legacy is like The Super Mario Bros. Movie in that both are just alright but they're high-budget adaptations that respect their source material and as such will be well-loved by fans of said source material - which there happen to be a whole lot of. I don't think The Super Mario Bros. Movie's gonna be nominated for any Oscars. Plus, the best-selling games of the year are often the usual Call of Duty and FIFA titles, which don't really get nominated for much, if at all.

Yes, JK Rowling's views (which really aren't - or at least, shouldn't - be political) did play a role, and likely a significant one at that. But honestly with how stacked this year is, the difference would've only been one or two nominations. Again, it's not like a critically-well recieved contender was being snubbed here. This isn't Forza Horizon 5 or Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Starfield was the next big Bethesda game and it only accrued a single nomination to it's name.

Going back to the topic at hand, though, it is nonetheless impressive that Hogwarts Legacy managed to become the best selling game of the year. That's no easy feat. It once again shows the sales power a licensed IP can have if you actually put in the effort. We've seen that a lot across many mediums this year. Not just with the aforementioned Mario movie but also The Last of Us as well.

LOL, sorry, but that posting reads sooo weird when you're like me and haven't seen the NEW Mario-movie yet and read "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" as if it's the old, live-action one

"That respect their source material" xD

 

[bababooey]

Fantastic result for a fantastic game... Which makes it even more baffling that TGA completely ignored the biggest game of the year.

2023 has been crazy year for games and Hogwarts didn't do THAT well critically. Don't think awards should care about financial success otherwise Call of Duty would be nominated every year

 

[Jimmy Joe]

Let's bring back the discussion into focus. The TGA nominations tangent has run its course.

Discussing the reception of the game as a function of its moral associations is by no means a tangent, even if the TGA discussion is, specifically

The high sales of the game—which, again, can't be taken at face value—remain a moral indictment of self-identified consumers, as is the insistence that any pushback against the game or its origins in transphobia is "politics"

 

[graylis]

For a moment, I thought this was resetera or r/gamingcirclejerk...

Anyway, fantastic sales for an amazing game whether you're a Potter fan or not. It does everything it was supposed to do very well and most importantly, it's fun to play and explore; also a very charming game in a fantastic world. By no means a perfect game as it has so many things that could have been done better or added but that's what a sequel is for.

I'm guessing with the switch version, it will stay in the top 10 for the next month or two. Insane achievement for a finished property...

The game most certainly should have gotten for art direction or music or tech (The world and specifically the castle design is wonderful). It's a shame the devs are being punished because the game industry is angry they lost the cancel war.

 

[AngryAlchemist]

Nothing new honestly. Look at 2020 with Animal Crossing, TGAs aren't really in touch in with the massmarket or wider cultural zeitgeist.

I didn't say "out of touch" in general, TGAs are just very insular to the industry and focused on console AAA. That's fine, most awards are, but both nominations and final awards are self selected in a way that generally eschews a lot of wider massmarket successes. Something that's sports oriented, mobile, casual, licensed, etc, generally has a much tougher go of it.

Ehhh. TGAs absolutely do focus on the most popular paid games a decent amount. Yes there are some games that aren't nominated very often (Pokemon / COD / FIFA etc.) and it's not entirely inclusive, but that's kind of to be expected from an award show that's based off exellence. Yes it's partially due to their audience, but also, I'd say that TGAs already do a better job of having an intersection between popular and acclaimed than something like the Oscars (to be fair, largely because video games are so expensive that the most expensive games are often likely to be more acclaimed because they need the budget to execute on their mechanics). Animal Crossing also was nominated for GOTY and is absolutely an AAA game, so no idea what that was about.

With Hogwarts Legacy, I don't see exactly how it being excluded shows the TGAs are out of touch. There are actually a fair amount of games that are either about as popular (TOTK, and soon to be Mario when legs come in) or close to being as popular (BG3, Diablo 4). The rest is covered by frankly just much better games. Honestly, I never got the complaint that awards shows should cater to zeitgeist products though. Not only do TGAs already do that for the most part, but something being popular doesn't mean it's good, which is the entire point of an award show.

 

[Tokuiten]

Hey guys, not trying to play mod, but if you don't wanna be mod-ded, better read the above posting:

Let's bring back the discussion into focus. The TGA nominations tangent has run its course.

 

[Oregano]

Mod Post

Lets straighten some things out

This thread is about Hogwarts Legacy being the best selling game of the year. The thread is remaining open because this is a sales forum and we're not dancing around the biggest game of the year.

Individual opinions about the quality of the game, and whether it was deserving of critical recognition are fine. However this thread(and this forum at all) are not a platform for people to feel comfortable to complain about cancel culture or cast aspersions based on "politics".

Even if people, including the media, do not want support the game either financially or critically based on their ethics in relation to the words and conduct of the creator of the IP, who benefits directly from the success of the game, that is perfectly acceptable reasoning and it's not okay to try and frame that as punishing the developers or the game.

On the flip side someone deciding to buy the game and enjoy the game does not inherently mean they support JK Rowling's views, people interact with problematic media all the time and it's a personal decision where you draw the line in what you choose to support or not.

Ultimately that isn't unique to this game, or this creator. There are a lot of fans of Dragon Quest on this board, whose money will have at some point helped Koichi Sugiyama fund ads denying Japanese war crimes.

The bottom line is we cannot simply ignore the existence of the game, but if you want to use it as a stepping stone to wage a war against people who fundamentally just didn't want to support someone who has said horrible things then you're not welcome here.

With that said lets get the thread back on track, if you have any feedback please put it in the community feedback thread. EDIT: To be clear by getting the thread back on track I mean focus on the actual subject of the thread(it's sales) and not the tangent about The Game Awards.

 

[peter42O]

Interesting perspective. I've been asked about HL several times by "ultra casuals" and I always told them that it's a 7/10 if you're not a HP fan, and a 9/10 if you are.

That 45 minute overview State of Play or whatever it was when they showed all this stuff you could do in the game plus the world, combat, etc. won me over and got me hyped into the game. Watched the combat and loved the setup to it where you have all these different types of magic and all on a cool down which I prefer over anything because you can then keep using it and changing to other tile sets of how I had my magic setup, oh man, it was so much fun and enjoyable. I played the game 100% on hard and it was just so damn good. I never watched any of the movies or read any of the books. Never cared about the IP itself. Star Wars and Marvel/DC is very similar where I won't watch the movies or read the books but I will play most of the games. lol

My personal ratings were -

Visuals - 9.0/10 (some facial animations and character models left a little to be desired but im not a graphics guy as it's the third most important category to me and the world itself, design, art style, etc. was so immersive that I think I spent over 20 hours in the castle alone just looking for every book and item to collect and find every secret)

Audio - 9.0/10 (loved the music for the most part, sound effects were really good and voice acting was solid)

Combat/Gameplay - 9.0/10 (while I had some issues with the camera and targeting certain enemies at times, the magic combat was great and felt very fluid and responsive. Had a blast with it. Only other negative was stealth was crap and AI at times could be bad but all in all, much better than I was expecting going in)

Story/Characters - 7.0/10 (this is probably the category where Harry Potter fans would like more, maybe? I don't know but I thought the story and characters were really good. Kept me entertained to the end and I really enjoyed it overall but was the weakest aspect of the game for me)

Overall - 8.5/10 (great game and is my 5th best game of 2023, 4th if I exclude Dead Space remake. Was hoping for a meaty expansion but going straight to a sequel works for me too so I don't have any complaints)

I also completed almost everything 100%. Total is around 95% or something like that. I would have to check but simply enjoyed the game overall and as long as the sequel is equal to this game or obviously better, im day one for it.

 

[EnergyDrink]

A lot of japanese games (if not most of) are very character driven. I guess it is popular in Japan? On the west, people are usually ok with generic protagonists.

The love for generic anime protagonist is better than the love for generic protagonist.

Anyway I am interested in the sales data for the Switch version, it's a bit uncharted territory, being so late after the other versions.

 

[Mcbel]

Hogwarts Legacy isn't GOTY contender in a year like 2023, but zero nominations for Game Awards indicates for me people voted based on personal beliefs about JK Rowling, instead of doing a technical evaluation of the game.

Which category do you think Hogwarts Legacy deserved to be in?

 

[BananaPeel]

It’s quite a good game and I’m happy it’s doing so well. Looking forward to the sequels, hoping we get to travel and visit some of the other schools.

 

[Roger Rabbit]

A solid start on Switch just about everywhere.

I think this will take the 2023 best-selling game title from Zelda.

 

[La Leganto]

A R$ 299,90 non Nintendo game charting (#10 at this moment) at the Brazilian eShop is just incredible. The game is localized and if it had regional price (like R$ 170), it would top best sellers list.

 

[SoonyXboneUhh]

Can't wait for years end best-seller lists and see where this charts.
2 more months and we know.

 

[Danny]

Can't wait for years end best-seller lists and see where this charts.
2 more months and we know.

Do you mean Hogwarts Legacy overall or just the Switch version? If you mean overall Hogwarts Legacy will easily be the best selling game of 2023.

 

[SoonyXboneUhh]

Do you mean Hogwarts Legacy overall or just the Switch version? If you mean overall Hogwarts Legacy will easily be the best selling game of 2023.

Overall.

CoD might win in the US. Fifa might win in Europe, but combined Hogwarts could be #1
That's the nuance I want to know.

Winning US against Cod and Europe against Fifa would be huge. But certainly possible.

 

[Belthazar]

Which category do you think Hogwarts Legacy deserved to be in?

At least Action-Adventure over Jedi Survivor..

And I'd personally think best RPG over FF XVI/Starfield. For being more of an RPG than the first and a better game than the latter.

 

[fiendcode]

edit: Ah, sorry!

 

[MegaXZero]

At least Action-Adventure over Jedi Survivor..

And I'd personally think best RPG over FF XVI/Starfield. For being more of an RPG than the first and a better game than the latter.

Octopath II deserved to be in best RPG over most of the noms and way ahead of Hogwarts.

Mod Post

Read the first mod post in full (yes we had to edit it a bit after the original posting), absolute final warning people. Get off the TGA tangent

 

[Meriadock]

I hated that game. And I was so excited i just hate that open world everything. But I’m glad it did well, we need better games adaptations from books, movies, tv… this is a start!

 

[Baki]

Success of this games make you think that something like Avatar should light the charts on fire. I don’t think it will. Partly because I think 1st person was the wrong choice and also because the marketing has fallen flat.

 

[awng782]

Success of this games make you think that something like Avatar should light the charts on fire. I don’t think it will. Partly because I think 1st person was the wrong choice and also because the marketing has fallen flat.

I know it was a popular meme to say that "Avatar didn't really leave much of a cultural impact despite its huge box office performance", but maybe it is true to some degree? I think people saw the movies because they have some of the most sophisticated visual effects ever and really immerse moviegoers in a fictional universe.

However, video games have different standards to movies. In that respect, Frontiers of Pandora isn't really doing anything groundbreaking. The visuals are great but far from the best ever, and there are already a ton of very immersive video games out there. It is basically "Avatar FarCry", and unfortunately that isn't a huge selling point to most people.

On the other hand, Harry Potter is a cultural juggernaut and one of the most famous fictional characters ever. The love and nostalgia for the IP is there - all that was needed to break into the video game market was a big budget and the right genre (open-world RPG).