A Hogwarts Legacy leak has revealed information about a number of characters, locations, and features ahead of the game's release next month.
Last night, a number of posts across Twitter and Reddit suggested that the game's official art book had made its way to some customers early, with images from the book being shared across social media. On the game's subreddit, a moderator announced that the mod team had been able to confirm that "some individuals do have an early copy of the art book," but while "the pictures of the art book do appear to be legitimate," "we cannot verify claims based on the art book."
Several of the leaked images appear to be concept art for in-game locations including classrooms, The Great Hall, and Diagon Alley. Others share details about teachers, introducing the Defense Against the Dark Arts and Herbology professors.
Art Book of #HogwartsLegacy LEAK !!!! RT AND FOLLOW pic.twitter.com/41bmq2fwOVJanuary 16, 2023
Two of the images shared on Twitter appear to be more pertinent to gameplay. One seems to be a customisation screen, showing a Ravenclaw character kitted out in Quidditch gear (despite the sport not featuring in the game), complete with Health, Defense, and Offense stats. Another is an early version of the game's world map, and while that's likely to have changed during development, it does give a sense of the scale of the world - assuming Hogwarts and its lake are sat in its centre, there's a huge amount of extra space to explore.
While some fans say they're steering well clear of the leaks, it seems that there are no real narrative or gameplay features included, so other players are seeking out as much as they can. An album curated by Reddit user -captain- gathers together all of the leaks so far, although many of the details pertain directly to professors and the creatures that occupy the game's open world.
It's an unfortunate leak, but hardly likely to be a debilitating one, especially given how well Hogwarts Legacy is already selling on PC. Despite that success, however, Hogwarts Legacy is already facing its own unique challenges, with Steam users appearing to protest the game through use of the platform's extensive tagging system.
Although she is not involved in the development of Hogwarts Legacy, 12DOVE acknowledges the role of J.K. Rowling in the creation of the Wizarding World, as well as her publicly-stated, harmful views regarding the rights of transgender people. If you’d like to offer your support to the communities affected by Rowling’s rhetoric, consider donating to the National Center for Transgender Equality in the US, or Mermaids in the UK.
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I'm GamesRadar's news editor, working with the team to deliver breaking news from across the industry. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.