New Hogwarts Legacy trailer goes hard on dark magic

Hogwarts Legacy dropped a new gameplay trailer at today's Gamescom Opening Night Live showcase, and it goes all-in on the dangers and benefits of dark magic. 

"If either of you uses dark magic, I will notify the headmaster immediately," an angry professor tells two students who use dark magic immediately. "Unforgivable curses are so named for a reason," he adds, growling through a graying beard. Amusingly, our rebellious hero replies: "A spell that can save your life shouldn't be unforgivable." 

"None of us will be able to avoid dark magic forever," the students chip in as the discussion moves onto the iconic Crucio curse. It turns out that stick-in-the-mud professor may have had a point, because whatever dark magic these students are messing with, it's apparently tied to giant spiders, undead legions, and a downright evil-looking door.

"Should you choose to befriend Slytherin student Sebastian Sallow, you will be faced with the decision to embrace or reject the Dark Arts as you uncover his family’s mystery through his companion quest line," the trailer description adds. 

The trailer closes with a blurb for pre-ordering the digital deluxe edition of the game. This gets you a set of cosmetics including a fancy hat, 72-hour early access to Hogwarts Legacy, and an adorable onyx hippogriff mount. I've only known the onyx hippogriff mount for 11 minutes, but I would cast dark magic on its behalf without hesitation. This lines up with the contents of the game's collector's edition, which was recently leaked online

Following a recent delay, Hogwarts Legacy will now launch on February 10, 2023 for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and PC, with a Switch version to follow. Of course, with that 72-hour early access, the release date is now technically February 7.  

Austin Wood
Senior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with 12DOVE since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.

Read more
The Fool's Apprentice
Hogwarts Legacy meets The Sims in The Fool's Apprentice, an enchanting management game in which you run a wizard school
Hogwarts Legacy house differences
10 Games like Hogwarts Legacy to explore outside of the wizarding world today
Hogwarts Legacy evil
Hogwarts Legacy gets official PC modding support in time for the wizarding RPG’s 2-year anniversary, but console players are feeling left out
Avowed screenshot showing two companions assisting in combat
Move over, Hogwarts Legacy and Dragon's Dogma 2 – Avowed's magic combat might be my favorite in RPG history
A screenshot from Secret Agent Wizard Boy, showing a castle hallway and schoolkids that wouldn't look out of place in the PS1 Harry Potters
This Harry Potter parody game is more than just a meme - it's a co-op "comedic sandbox with a complete lack of safety nets" and 100% positive Steam reviews
South of Midnight screenshot of Catfish the catfish
Gorgeous folklore action game South of Midnight reveals the best animal boss names since Elden Ring's Golden Hippopotamus and gets a spring release date
Latest in Action
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Indy hanging onto a vine as in Raiders of the Lost Ark
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle PS5 release date reportedly set for April after ESRB leak
Death Stranding 2
Hideo Kojima says he'll "apologize beforehand" for Death Stranding 2 moments with Troy Baker's Higgs which are "so ridiculous" that "you'll probably throw the controller"
a titanium watch with grey and orange features on the arms and face
You can look like Solid Snake with this Death Stranding 2 watch, but it'll cost you over $1,500
Players in GTA Online running businesses and playing missions
GTA publisher is suing a GTA Online website that lets you buy hacked accounts, which "risks upending the GTA 5 player experience"
Death Stranding 2 trailer showing Sam shooting at an enemy
Hideo Kojima aims to beat the ‘walking simulator’ allegations as Death Stranding 2 releases combat-heavy trailer
Death Stranding 2
Hideo Kojima is still hung up on his ex, as Death Stranding 2 features a Metal Gear Solid doppelganger the director says is the spitting image of Solid Snake
Latest in News
Atelier Ryza 3 protagonist closeup
JRPG producer says people prefer their anime girls to have thick thighs when the economy's in the tank, and he's not even joking a little bit
Diego Luna as Cassian Andor in Andor season 2
Andor season 2 showrunner talks the much-anticipated Star Wars moment that we haven't seen on screen before: "It's a very significant part of our show"
Skyrim
It took Skyrim players nearly 15 years to discover ingenious loot hack that completely changes the game and, uh, requires you to desecrate a couple corpses
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Indy hanging onto a vine as in Raiders of the Lost Ark
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle PS5 release date reportedly set for April after ESRB leak
Fallout
Fallout season 2’s dazzling and dystopian New Vegas is coming to life in a new leaked video
an ai chatbot plays a modded verion of pokemon red and jumps down a ledge to talk to an npc
An AI's mission to 'teach' itself Pokemon Red is going as well as you think - after escaping Cerulean City after tens of hours, it went right on back