Hogwarts Legacy’s new trailer shows the dark side of siding with Slytherin

Hogwarts Legacy, fresh from Warner Bros.’ announcement of a three-month delay, got a new trailer to kick off Gamescom 2022 at Opening Night Live on Tuesday. The latest reveal spotlighted the complications of using dark magic in the open-world Harry Potter adventure.

Developer Avalanche Software will let players befriend Slytherin student Sebastian Sallow, and face the choice to embrace or reject the Dark Arts “as you uncover his family’s mystery through his companion quest line,” the Hogwarts Legacy’s new trailer description says. The trailer focuses on an optional companion quest line featuring Sallow, and a glimpse at the difficult choices players will have to make to engage or shun dark magic.

Hogwarts Legacy takes place in the late 1800s, about 100 years before Harry Potter enrolls at the famed wizarding school, and stars a created player character as a new wizard or witch studying there. In Hogwarts Legacy, however, they are a fifth-year student, learning advanced magic, making friends, and battling fierce rivals.

Originally set for a holiday 2022 launch, Avalanche Software and Warner Bros. pushed Hogwarts Legacy to Feb. 10, 2023 to give developers “a little more time to deliver the best possible game experience.” Hogwarts Legacy is confirmed to launch that day on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. The Nintendo Switch version of the game does not yet have a release date.

Though the game fits into the overall Harry Potter canon, creator J.K. Rowling is not involved in Hogwarts Legacy’s creation. Immediately after announcing Hogwarts Legacy in September 2020, last Warner Bros. Games distanced the project from her in light of Rowling’s public, and transphobic, remarks on gender.