Fans are becoming increasingly worried about the future of Hogwarts Legacy 2, as comments from the studio head have prompted players to start their very own petition.
Despite a wave of controversy surrounding the first game's release, Hogwarts Legacy was one of gaming's biggest financial successes in 2023, boasting over 22 million sales and holding the title of the year's best selling game.
It was one of an increasing number of single-player success stories in recent years, and fans of both the game and the wider Harry Potter universe were delighted at the news that a sequel is in the works.
This excitement has turned to sourness and fear, however, as comments from Warner Bros. Discovery gaming lead J.B. Perrette at a now-deleted Morgan Stanley speaking event have instilled anxiety about what might become of Hogwarts Legacy 2.
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Perrette argued, as reported by Gamespot, that: "Rather than just launching a one-and-done console game, how do we develop a game around, for example, a Hogwarts Legacy or Harry Potter, that is a live-service where people can live and work and build and play in that world in an ongoing basis?"
Even without the direct mention of the series fans would have been worried, as Hogwarts Legacy was exactly that 'one-and-done console game' that fans have been craving.
This statement has directly led to a petition from fans, titled "Stop Hogwarts Legacy 2 from being a Live Service."
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The petition, created shortly after Perrette's talk, has garnered 9,445 signatures at the time of writing, with many impassioned pleas against the shift to a live service model.
It focuses on key features like 'microtransactions' and 'forced grind', and argues that "live services are a plague on the industry... that is hated by many players and developers who don't want their games ruined by greedy executives."
Although there is certainly interest and a desire for multiplayer elements to be added to the game, allowing players to experience the world of Hogwarts with their friends and randoms across the globe, it appears that many would be willing to sacrifice that if it meant not having typically unpopular live service elements too.
What remains bizarre, however, about Perrette's argument is that he singles out the studio's Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League as a sign of a 'volatile' market that favors things like live service models over one-and-done single player experiences.
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Many would point to the live service nature of Suicide Squad as a key part of it's failure, and recent infamous duds like PlayStation's Concord only help cement this feeling within the wider gaming landscape.
One popular post on X (formerly Twitter) by former director at Game Informer Brian Shea denotes that this behavior, following the failure of Suicide Squad, is "the textbook definition of Executives Don't Know What They're Doing."
While it's hard to know if turning Hogwarts Legacy into a live service for its sequel would make a significant enough dent in the sales, it's hard to argue that the justification for such a move is hard to follow.