More than ever, Hogwarts Legacy: Hogwarts Legacy is talking about him. The ambitious open-world game in the Harry Potter universe received a superb gameplay trailer this week and many questions arose.
Hogwarts Legacy online pre-orders: when the covers indicate a mandatory internet connection
If players were initially scared by the potential presence of microtransactions in the game, this rumor was quickly officially denied by Chandler Wood, the Community Manager of Warner Bros. Avalanche. The information is even written in black and white on the Hogwarts Legacy website : there will be no in-game microtransactions whether it is to buy clothes or speed up the time of potions and the growth of ingredients.
But it won’t take long for fans to worry about something else. : the possible need to connect to the internet to play the RPG. This seems completely illogical when you know that Hogwarts Legacy does not have multiplayer features (whether local or online). That being said, after the fiasco of Gran Turismo 7 whose servers were completely offline for more than 24 hours, the fear may seem legitimate. When is it really? Where does this rumor of mandatory internet connection come from?
A few news sites have noticed that one of the pre-order covers of Hogwarts Legacy indicated the mention “Requires Internet”. We will see below that this is probably not true since the covers of the game are currently not final and each merchant site uses a different one. This remains a possibility, but it is better to wait for an official communication before worrying about it.
Why does this make no sense
You should know that pre-orders for Hogwarts Legacy have been open since November 2021 already. This is therefore nothing new and the recent State of Play dedicated to gaming will simply have woke up merchant sites to promote the game on their online stores. Thus, and as for any big game, businesses like Amazon, FNAC, Cultura, Leclerc etc… already offer the RPG for sale at a price of around 70€. The title is then available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series and even Nintendo Switch!
As far as these platforms are concerned, this is true since confirmed in the FAQ of the official Hogwarts Legacy website as well as by the game’s Community Manager. On the other hand, you have to realize one thing: the jackets used by merchants are not “official”it is simply place holder just like the announced release date of December 31, 2022. This allows online stores to be able to display something in advance in order to sell the pre-order of the game as soon as possible to Harry Potter fans.
In short, it is a common and legal practice but which does not mean in any way that the covers presented are final. For this, it will be necessary wait for an official communication from Warner Bros Games and Avalanche Software when they present the pre-order bonuses and the different editions of the game (standard, deluxe, collector). Either way, without microtransactions or multiplayer, it seems unlikely that an internet connection will be required to play Hogwarts Legacy. However, let us remain on our guard because the practice, on Xbox in particular, is probably more and more common to avoid hacking and abusive sharing of games.
You all spotted Nearly Headless Nick in the gameplay trailer, right? You’ll see he has other iconic characters from the Harry Potter saga in Hogwarts Legacy: Hogwarts Legacy!