Despite everything that Hogwarts Legacy promises to deliver, the development team haven’t been very talkative about Quidditch and its potential inclusion as a sport that NPCs play, or even one that players can engage with. Rumors surrounding the game claim that Quidditch will not be playable in Hogwarts Legacy, and while that would be a potential missed opportunity, it also makes sense for a number of reasons. Chief among them is the fact that Quidditch as a sport played in the real world has changed its name to Quadball following controversies around J. K. Rowling.
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Why Hogwarts Legacy Cutting Quidditch Makes Sense
It’s little surprise that Quidditch became a real-life sport following Harry Potter’s worldwide success that grew a massive fanbase of all ages. However, the Harry Potter fan community has been dealing with controversies concerning J. K. Rowling’s opinions about trans people, leading to a lot of heated arguments on social media especially. One of the several consequences of this is that the former Major League Quidditch organization, now Major League Quadball, decided to change the sport’s name for copyright reasons and to distance itself from Rowling’s transphobia.
In the books and the movies, Quidditch is great to see because it’s an innovative concept that pulls from myths about witches riding brooms, and it would be refreshing to see that gameplay implemented in Hogwarts Legacy. However, it also makes sense to cut it completely, as either adding Quidditch with its original name or changing the name to Quadball could have a negative impact on Hogwarts Legacy and its fans by making it seem the developers are taking a political stance.
Not introducing Quidditch in Hogwarts Legacy could also be a good thing when it comes to delivering on promises it made early on, as broomstick sports are so complex that they could have been a risk. Quidditch is likely difficult to add to a game that already focuses so much on exploration, spell duels, and crafting, and Hogwarts Legacy’s recent delay announcement shows the team is already pushing itself to make such an expansive experience. Cutting Quidditch could not only be a good strategic move to avoid backlash surrounding series creator J. K. Rowling, but also help polish the game without overloading it with too many features.
Yet, this doesn’t mean that Quidditch will never be a part of Hogwarts Legacy, assuming rumors about it are true. Quidditch could come further down the road if the developers want to add expansions, which would still pose the issue about the magical game’s name, but it wouldn’t have to be dealt with at launch. As much as it might pain some fans to not have this unique, magical sport included in the game, it may be for the best - at least for the time being.
Hogwarts Legacy launches on February 10 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, with a Switch version also in development.
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