Last year's Hogwarts Legacy proved many things, but perhaps the most obvious was the way it underlined how underused the Harry Potter universe had been in gaming terms.
After years of mediocre movie tie-ins, it had been fallow for a good while, but Hogwarts Legacy hit simply huge sales numbers to demonstrate how motivated the franchise's huge fanbase could be to spend cash on games.
The next big Harry Potter game won't actually make them spend anything, though. This is because it's been confirmed that PlayStation Plus members will get Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions for free when it releases on 3 September, as part of their tranche of monthly included games.
The game will be available for both PS5 and PS4 players, and while they'll be getting it free if they're PS Plus members, it's also coming to PC and Xbox as a £24.99 / $29.99 release (depending on your region).
This also isn't a particularly comparable title to Hogwarts Legacy, in truth – where that was an expansive single-player RPG that leant into the idea of going through your own story in Hogwarts' halls, Quidditch is basically a sports title that (inevitably) uses the in-universe game of Quidditch as its base.
Players will form up in teams to face-off in full matches, with roles available to select including Chaser, Beater and Seeker – just like in the books and movies. The game will have a career mode that starts off humble, with training games against the Weasley family, before taking off with matches at Hogwarts and various other schools.
That career will support three-player co-op online, which sounds like a good chill time, but online face-offs will doubtless be the real draw for those hoping to sink major hours into the game. There will be plenty of customisation options and a skill tree to explore for each position, and you can have up to six characters in a roster to let you make multiple builds at once.
The game is now incredibly imminent, so it'll be curious to see whether it can stick the landing and carve out a player base for itself as a broomstick-based Rocket League alternative, or whether it'll be a flash in the pan. But if you're a PS Plus subscriber then you can find out 'for free' this week, come 3 September...
