Previous talks circulated that Niantic was planning to develop "Harry Potter Go," which followed the same approach as the hit mobile game "Pokemon Go." However, it turns out that Niantic has no intention of working on "Harry Potter Go" anytime soon.
A previous report noted that an interview between IGN and Marcus Figueroa, a senior developer at Niantic, took place. Figueroa allegedly said that they acquired the rights to create "Harry Potter Go" and is already working on a game that will launch early in 2017.
The game would involve taking wizardry and witchcraft classes, as well as collecting various items, following a similar approach as "Pokemon Go." However, it was recently revealed that no such interview happened between IGN and the Niantic employee.
Gizmodo revealed that the alleged interview, which has a link, only leads to an error page. Most interviews with Niantic have been conducted with Niantic founder John Hanke, so it would be unlikely that another employee would be tasked to talk about a major project like "Harry Potter Go." Searching for "Marcus Figueroa" will only link to more articles regarding "Harry Potter Go" and the hoax interview.
Snopes noted that initial talks of "Harry Potter Go" launching started in July 2016, which is about the same time that "Pokemon Go" was gaining momentum in the gaming market quickly. "Harry Potter Go" reports mentioned that Niantic decided to create the game following the success of the augmented reality Pokemon game. "Harry Potter Go" would be based on the books by J.K. Rowling and would feature several elements from both the movies and stories.
The alleged interview cited Figueroa in saying that Niantic wanted to involve schools of witchcraft and wizardry in "Harry Potter Go," in the same manner as PokeStops in "Pokemon Go." They also planned to include a quest system and potentially massive and fully interactive events.
Although it seems that "Harry Potter Go" will not actually launch anytime soon, fans should not be too quick to dismiss its development. "Pokemon Go' was borne out of a 2014 April fool's joke, so Niantic may also decide to create "Harry Potter Go" if they realize that there is a huge demand for it.