RIP Harry Potter Magic Awakened – NetEase officially killed it off last night

Here in the west, anyway

October 30, 2024 12:30 PM

It’s never easy to say goodbye to an MMO – especially one that you’ve personally spent every day playing since launch. Of course, we’ve known about and been prepared for the Harry Potter Magic Awakened sunset since August, but that doesn’t make it much easier. Neither does the fact that the game launched only slightly over a year ago, or the fact that the game has always been part of an extremely controversial brand that’s made it difficult to cover.

But yes, Harry Potter: Magic Awakened officially sunsetted its American, European, and Oceania servers last night at 6 p.m. EDT on the dot. The game’s original Asian servers – namely, those in China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan – will remain online. Warner Bros and NetEase never stated a specific reason for the closure; the game was reportedly making good profits for the companies.

There are various guides floating around online purporting to explain how to transfer accounts to the Asian servers, but I’ve never been of the mind to do such things, so I can’t speak to whether they’re legitimate. In my view, sometimes we just have to let our games go. And despite being so near Halloween, the shutdown did not abide by vampire rules; the day has come and gone whether I invited it or not.

MOP readers will know we’ve covered the game since launch, detailing the many aspects that caught our – OK, mostly my – attention and didn’t let go. I even wrote up a summary of all the ways HPMA should and could have clicked with MMO gamers of all stripes, from its extremely well-made PvP combat to all the features like housing tailor-made for roleplayers. Whether because of its mobile nature, the studio behind it, or the Harry Potter IP itself, the game was truly overlooked and deserved so much better than NetEase gave it.

RIP, Harry Potter Magic Awakened.