EA's Harry Potter late for class

By Tom Magrino, GameSpotPosted Sep 8, 2008 10:30 am PT

Publisher's game tie-in to Warner Bros.' abruptly delayed Half-Blood Prince will be released alongside movie in summer 2009.

Fans of the Harry Potter films might have taken to wailing and gnashing teeth when Warner Bros. unexpectedly delayed Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth theatrical installment based on J.K. Rowling's best-selling novels. One such person may have been EA CEO John Riccitiello, who abruptly found himself with a guaranteed money-making holiday game release and no film to push it out alongside.

As has been widely expected, EA and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment said today that the game Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has been delayed from its expected November release to join the film when it debuts worldwide in summer 2009. When the Half-Blood Prince does claim his crown, he will do so on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Wii, Nintendo DS, PC, Mac, and mobile devices.

Like the film, the game Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince follows the titular hero as he enters his sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. There, he will play some quidditch, duel some wizards, and attempt not to be the latest of victim of supreme dark lord and series antagonist Voldemort. The game is in development at EA's Bright Light Studio, which is based in Guildford, UK.

For more on Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.

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padouke
Posted Sep 12, 2008 9:23 pm PT

wow, well screw all those people who are making the Harry Potter movies. By the time they'll be finished, Obama/McCain will be out of office... Soooo long b/w movies, and the sad thing is, theyve prob been done making them for months. Its bad enough, them splitting Deathly Hollows in to two movies, now theyre delaying movies as well? Whats the poimt???
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dj_b02us
Posted Sep 10, 2008 9:36 am PT

have any of these games been any good?
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tawagivercetti
Posted Sep 9, 2008 11:44 pm PT

I really feel for kids who get harry pothead games for xmas and birthdays etc when they really want gears or gta. I'd rather my kids play relevant groundbreaking games rather than numbing their minds with hp and other bland kids games.
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HaVoC_DX
Posted Sep 9, 2008 10:53 pm PT

this is a comment 4 da developers: wat u hav to do to make hp games hit is dat mak'em rpg or something other than ur current s**kin gamelay.use ur c sense
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HaVoC_DX
Posted Sep 9, 2008 10:49 pm PT

U suk hp . y am i here i clicked spider mans review.
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Teh_Dana
Posted Sep 9, 2008 3:16 pm PT

Why the hell Im here If I clicked on Stalker Clear sky review link on the main page ?

WTF ?
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Superdude475
Posted Sep 9, 2008 2:40 pm PT

WTF I clicked the preview for Spiderman and I came here. Great job GlitchSpot.
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Lisandro_v22
Posted Sep 9, 2008 2:19 pm PT

HP games suck, such a pity...
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tbolt_88
Posted Sep 9, 2008 2:05 pm PT

I dont care about the game being delayed, what I care about is the movie being delayed. I was really looking foward to this movie. I mean sure the last one had a lot cut out of it but I still found it enjoyable.
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icym
Posted Sep 9, 2008 1:12 pm PT

All those poor artists and programmers that left their wives, girlfriends, and families during the last months of the original deadline... all for naught.
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icym
Posted Sep 9, 2008 1:12 pm PT

All those poor artists and programmers that left their wives, girlfriends, and families during the last months of the original deadline... all for naught.
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akiwak
Posted Sep 9, 2008 12:06 pm PT

Games tend to sell more when they are released to along with the movie. Makes sense and this might give the devs enough time to polish and deliver another ok game.
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Roland1225
Posted Sep 9, 2008 11:53 am PT

Well if I thinking about this right then they are not releasing it late to because EA wants to. Im really guessing that Warner Bros' is making them so it does not release before the movie, and maybe spoils scenes(even though,yes, the books have been out for along time)
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Rovelius
Posted Sep 9, 2008 11:08 am PT

Who cares, these games suck.
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amber_jade
Posted Sep 9, 2008 10:45 am PT

pcgamer522 Wow, a movie-based game that's actually being delayed to be IMPROVED. That's new.

Unfortunately they're not delaying it to improve it, only to make more money! I'd bet money that they won't continue to work on it.
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saturo123
Posted Sep 9, 2008 10:43 am PT

I doubt the delay will help it get past the stereotype that all movie tie-in games are pretty bad
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Hvac0120
Posted Sep 9, 2008 8:30 am PT

Hopefully EA will take this extra time to actually make a fun game. Since they thought they were so close to launch, you would think that the game would be nearly finished at this point. EA could very easily throw the code in the closest for a few months until it's time to get approvals from the console manufactures. If they put a little more money into the project and continue to work on this for another 6+ months, they could actually get some high-quality gameplay added to the game.
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joshzen
Posted Sep 9, 2008 8:28 am PT

Well now they have time to polish the game up a bit
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anthonyb12
Posted Sep 9, 2008 7:26 am PT

I remember playing the first harry potter game on the computer, that is when I stopped playing the games lol. The games haven't been good, so unless one of the hp games gets crazy good ratings, I'm not getting it.
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defjam33
Posted Sep 9, 2008 7:13 am PT

Emma Watson is a hottie and now legal!

hehe
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