LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1–4

[GamerMan316]

TT Games has been at it for some time now with its Lego-themed games, taking on everything from Star Wars to Rock Band, each entry coupling the same goofy, self-referential comedy with a family friendly low barrier to entry.

The new trailer for Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 takes these recurring tropes and adds them to the world of Hogwarts, Muggles, and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, sprinkling in iconic moments from the first four blockbuster books throughout. Without a release date for the game – and with the first half of the final Harry Potter film not hitting theaters until next November – we worry it might be awhile before we get our hands on this block-breaking version of Harry.

[Astrex]

LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 Gets a UK Release Date

Warner Bros has announced that LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 will be working its plastic magic when it's released in the UK on June 25th.

Apparently the game had been scheduled for a loose May launch date, but has been pushed back a month. Why? We don't know, but we doubt it's a conscious decision to avoid Alan Wake and Red Dead Redemption (both out in May), as they hardly share the same audience. Unless anyone was planning to buy this and Alan Wake at the same time? One's about a tortured writer, the other's about a plastic wizard. There must be someone with both on their list, surely?

Harry Potter is the latest in a long line of iconic franchises to be LEGO-ised, following the likes of Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Batman. TT Games is once again on the case, with Warner publishing for the second time following LEGO Rock Band.


I didn't write that, I just copy n pasted 

[GamerMan316]

Hands-on

[GamerMan316]

Traveller's Tales discusses its new title - and the future of the series...

Traveller's Tales seem to have discovered a pretty successful formula when it comes to giving some of Hollywood's biggest titles a blocky makeover.

From Star Wars to Batman to Indiana Jones, the world of Lego has offered light-hearted relief and great gameplay to boot.

Now the focus is on Harry Potter and CVG sat down with Traveller's Tales to talk about the young wizard, the magic of Lego videogames and what they could conjure up in the future.

What lessons have you learnt from the LEGO Indy games?
So with each new game, we really pour our heart and soul into creating new experiences. For LEGO Indiana Jones 2 we put a lot of quite radical things in - the dynamic split screen has been universally adored, and that's something we're bringing into LEGO Harry Potter.

Also new in LEGO Indiana Jones 2 was a much more encompassing structure, based around the movies. That speaks to our desire to make experience which are more immersive - to use a fairly overused word - more connected to each other other.

LEGO |Harry Potter] shares some of those aspirations, based on the idea of Hogwarts being somewhere you want to discover all of the secrets of. The experience of Hogwarts unfolding in LEGO will be different to LEGO Indiana Jones 2 - where each of the hub areas is pretty suddenly found yourself with a lot of options that were quite diversely spread in location.

Hogwarts unfolds in a much more measured way which players - particularly young players, will find much more signposted. But still live with the same level of depth and scope you saw in LEGO Indiana Jones 2.

When you look back over the Traveller's Tales LEGO canon, which games are you most proud of?
We're incredibly proud of every game. That sounds glib, but it isn't - as I said before, we put our heart and soul into these games... Where the games are different form each other, we enjoy very different things.

And there is a common thread as well. LEGO Star Wars was the first game we made [in the series] so it has a special place for us. I think we were very glad we could make more of that game in LEGO Star Wars The Complete Saga. The statistics presented by Nintendo in Wii for game rated by length of time people play them for, they rank LEGO Star Wars consistently in the top ten with average play time coming in at 40 hours-plus. That I think has to be one of our proudest achievements.

LEGO Harry Potter is coming out across platforms. PS3 is perhaps the best example of a system that's more aimed at mature gamers at this point in its lifecycle. Do you think Harry Potter could appeal to adult gamers - not playing it with his or her family?
So we're all adult gamers [at Traveller's Tales]. We all play with our family as well, but we are all just as critical of new games as anyone, perhaps even more so.

We know what we like to play, and the games we make we play all the time as we're making them. We have to be satisfying ourselves as we go along. LEGO Harry Potter is a game we enjoy playing and we enjoy playing between ourselves. I'm sure there are other people who will share that.

What did you make of the Harry Potter games that have gone before, and did you take any inspiration from them?
I'll be honest that the other Harry Potter games are not well known to me. When we're creating a Lego game, our starting point is a blend of LEGO-ness with the IP. As a secondary expression for the IP, taking influence from other video games would take us down a different path.

I believe EA sort of had the same objectives as us, in bringing the world of Hogwarts and Harry Potter to life. I just can't really talk about them in any meaningful way.

Looking at the LEGO games' future, what do you look for when you choose a franchise you can marry with LEGO?
Harry Potter was the most natural next step for us. To a significant extent, Harry Potter found us. It's such a natural fit, it was a no-brainer. You can do a process of analysis thing, though. At a broad world level, we look for strong well-defined characters and a sense of depth in a well-established universe.

What's your view of Project Natal and PS3's motion controller? Is that something you're excited about bringing to the LEGO games?
We're always trying to do new things with our LEGO games. New affordances of technology on different platforms are of course very, very interesting to that aspiration.

What's your experience been of Natal so far?
I run the risk of slipping into corporate that I shouldn't. The aspirations of Sony and Microsoft to create new interfaces of video game play are pretty admirable.

In the early stages of Natal's life at least, it will surely be a mainstream proposition. Wouldn't it be a perfect fit for LEGO games?
You're asserting what Microsoft have already said. You're making two observations: One that Microsoft want Natal to reach new audiences and that we have done that with our games in the past.

Right. So it makes sense that the LEGO games would be a perfect fit for Natal - and that you'd be looking into bringing them to the platform?
That's how it sounds based on those two statements, yes. I'm not sure what you're looking for, actually.

Do you have any plans to bring LEGO games to the Natal platform?
As I said, we're very interested into these new things. We couldn't be interested without having looked at it - that would be weird. Of course we're aware of their plans. We're aware, as you are, of Sony and Microsoft's plans and are interested in them. I'm not going to sit here and say: "...and here's a new game!" Given we haven't made any announcements, anything I can add [to what I've said] would sound half-baked. Let's just say we're interested.

What about 3D games. Would you be interested in re-purposing LEGO games with this new tech?
I think if there is a demand, we'd be foolish not to respond to it one day. But right now we're concentrating on LEGO Harry Potter.

As a third-party, you see rare success on Wii. If I was to set up a studio tomorrow, what advice would you give me for cracking the system?
I'd give you terrible advice - you'd be a competitor. [Laughs].

What's your secret been in terms of being so successful on Wii?
We haven't compromised the design of our games for the Wii. We put a lot of love into our Wii games - they're never a second thought for us. We've had great success on Wii and that's why we naturally focus on making it a natural all-encompassing LEGO experience, from which we reap the rewards.

Can Harry Potter widen the audience that currently exists for the LEGO games?
Sure. We've always set out to make our games for everybody, without limits. We know that says male and females players, young and old, have enjoyed our previous LEGO games. So we're not trying to bring down any barriers with this release, as for us there already aren't any barriers.

That said, the world of Harry Potter is weighted in a different way to some of the properties we've worked with in the past. More people when I talk to them about the game say to me: "I know my girlfriend is really looking forward to this game," than have done in the past.

Star Wars, Batman, Indy - is it fair to say they were more male-focussed as franchises than Harry?
To a significant degree. Star Wars is probably the least guilty there - but Harry Potter is the one that appeals most broadly out of all of the franchises we've worked on.

[GamerMan316]

Achievements

[Astrex]

Oh yes I'l be picking this one up 

[GamerMan316]

LEGO Potter demo next week

Warner will unleash an Xbox 360 demo of LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 on Monday, 7th June.

Samplers for PC and PS3 arrive later this month.

LEGO Harry Potter is made by Traveller's Tales of LEGO Star Wars, LEGO Batman and LEGO Indiana Jones fame. This can't really go too far wide of the mark, then.

The full game's due out on 25th June.

[GamerMan316]

LEGO Potter sells 2.7 million

Warner Bros. has revealed that LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 has sold 2.7 million copies around the world.

The numbers were noted duringTime Warner's Q2 2010 financial results, released today.

LEGO Potter has a long way to go to catch LEGO Batman's worldwide total of 7 million sales. But the latter has had two years to accumulate that, and the two-part Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows finale has yet to air in cinemas.

LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4, released in June, rekindled the magic of TT Game's LEGO series.

[RedMaster11]

2.7 million copies?! That's a lot of bugs! 

[kewlazice]

who woulda thunk it wow

[Failed]

2.7 million copies?! That's a lot of bugs! 

you'd think after all those Star Wars games they could get it right??!

[sambo]

Harry Potter sells, Just ask the author.

[GamerMan316]

Harry Potter sells, Just ask the author.

It's true, the sellout will tell you herself.