Whatever your feelings on J.K. Rowling or the
Harry Potter franchise, it's impossible to deny that
Hogwarts Legacy has been
a massive, smash hit. That's without even launching on the previous-generation consoles, something that a
surprising number of new titles still do. The release of the game on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One was supposed to happen on April 4th, but it's been pushed back approximately a month to May 5th.
This news comes straight from the source: a tweet from the official
Hogwarts Legacy Twitter account, reproduced above. Both last-gen versions of the game have been delayed, and the reason given is simply "to deliver the best possible experience on all platforms." Frankly, it's nice to see a game being delayed for quality reasons instead of being
released broken only to be
patched later.
The new date for the last-gen release.
It shouldn't come as a surprise that the game needs more time for polish on the last-gen consoles. At least, it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who has played the PC version. While the game wasn't in nearly so rough a state as some recent PC releases (like
Forspoken or
Gotham Knights), it had its share of bugs along with extremely
inconsistent performance, even on grossly-overpowered hardware. The console versions fared better, so that may be why the delay is only a month.
There's no word of a delay for the
promised Switch version of the game, which is scheduled to release in May. Gamers have theorized that the version of
Hogwarts Legacy for Nintendo's handheld could be a "cloud" version, utilizing streaming technology and requiring a quality internet connection to play. That's not impossible, but we suspect it's more likely that the game will simply be significantly pared-back to play on Nintendo's handheld. Unreal Engine is
incredibly scalable, after all.
Of course, it probably won't look like this on the Switch.
Your author has finished the game twice already, including a 100% run, and is generally a fan of the title. While it doesn't particularly excel in any specific area (and it frankly feels a little unfinished in parts), it's a surprisingly high-effort action RPG with entertaining combat, charming characters, and a surprising amount of variation in the content depending on which Hogwarts house you get sorted into. You can
pick it up on Steam if you're itching for another 20-40 hour open-world action RPG.