As a competitive sport, Quidditch is broken. Those of you who’ve read the Harry Potter novels will know that catching the elusive, winged ball will earn the Seeker’s associated team 150 points and conclude the match. This effectively renders everything else occurring within the arena irrelevant, and while the books do a good job of maintaining the drama, changes were always going to be required for PS5 and PS4 spin-off Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions.
And here we are: catching the Snitch has been nerfed to just 30 points – and it no longer ends the game. This, according to the developer, still provides ample opportunity for teams to either extend their leads or stage late comebacks, while maintaining a semblance of balance overall. As in the novels, you’ll still earn 10 points for tossing the Quaffle through one of the opponent’s three goalposts, so that aspect remains unchanged.
Judging by the trailer embedded above, this all looks and sounds like superb fun. The single player campaign will take you from a friendly match with the Weasleys to the Wizarding World Cup, with the annual Hogwarts tournaments and Tri-Wizard World Cup spanning the competitions in between. You’ll earn skill points as you progress to upgrade your abilities, and you’ll be able to play across all positions as either a custom character or an iconic Harry Potter hero – including PS1-era Hagrid.
There’ll be different brooms to unlock, each suited to unique positions and playstyles. And you’ll be able to further personalise your mount with liveries and the like. One thing that’s also worth reiterating here is that there are no microtransactions planned; while it’s possible further cosmetics could be added later if the title turns out to be popular, the publisher is insisting that all of the outing’s content will be unlockable through gameplay.