Harry Potter: Wizards Unite Is Shutting Down

Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, the Pokemon Go-style mobile game from Niantic, is shutting down. The game will cease operation on January 31, 2022, the developers have announced.

Ahead of that, Niantic is pulling the game from iOS and Android on December 6, which is also when in-game purchases will be turned off.

In a blog post, the studio said "millions" of people played Wizards Unite, but no reason for the shutdown was provided. In a separate post on Niantic's website, the team said, "Not all games are meant to last forever." It added that Wizards Unite had a two-year narrative story arc in mind, and that will soon end, with the game closing as well.

"We'll take all of the learnings from Harry Potter: Wizards Unite into our other projects," Niantic said. The studio just recently launched its latest Pokemon Go-style game, Pikmin Bloom.

For Wizards Unite, players can expect a series of bonuses and extras now until the game closes. Starting today, players can make the most of these gameplay changes:

• All Daily Assignments will have their rewards increased
• All Potion Brew times will be reduced by 50% with Master Notes
• The daily cap on sending and opening Gifts will be removed
• Barrufio’s Brain Elixir potion will now award 3× player XP
• 1920s Portkey Portmanteaus will appear on the map more frequently and associated Fragment rewards will be doubled
• Spell Energy and Ingredients will appear on the map more frequently

Wizards Unite is also hosting a series of events in the lead-up to the game's closure. These include the following:

• November
  • Dolores Umbridge Lethal Adversaries Event
  • Half-Blood Prince Brilliant Event Part 1
  • Lucius Malfoy Lethal Adversaries Event
  • Half-Blood Prince Brilliant Event Part 2
• December
  • Bellatrix Lethal Adversaries Event
  • Horcrux Hunt Part 2
  • Voldemort Lethal Adversaries Event
  • Deathly Hallows Brilliant Event Part 1
  • Holiday Event
  • Deathly Hallows Brilliant Event Part 2
• January
  • We’ll share more details regarding additional game changes that’ll happen during the month of January.

A FAQ confirms that anyone who has Wizards Unite on their device but deletes it or gets a new phone won't be able to re-install it after December 6. It also mentions that no refunds are being made available to players who have an allotment of in-game currency and don't spend it "except where otherwise required by law."

While Wizards Unite is going away, the Harry Potter mobile game Hogwarts Mystery remains available. It is very popular, bringing in more than $300 million in revenue from microtransactions.

In other Harry Potter news, the big open-world game for console and PC, Hogwarts Legacy, launches in 2022.