Upcoming open world game Hogwarts Legacy used all original music in its tour videos, as the developer staff have confirmed.
On Twitter, Hogwarts Legacy community manager Chandler Wood answered a fan asking if they licensed any of the music used in these teasers. Seeing as the videos were barely over a minute each, it wasn’t out of bounds that said music could be placeholders for the final product.
While this isn’t the same thing as teasing characters, events, bosses or other content in the game, some fans had taken a liking to the music, and it is certainly a large part of the game design.
The Harry Potter franchise’s distinctive sound was mainly created by acclaimed composer John Williams, who composed the signature theme in Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone, and the music in the two succeeding sequels. The other movies received music from Patrick Doyle, Nicholas Hooper, and Alexandre Desplat. However, Williams’ signature theme was used across different media, including the many different Harry Potter video games.
However, with Hogwarts Legacy, it is developer Warner Brothers’ intent to not evoke Harry Potter’s story, or even the story of his parents, as indicated in the recently released FAQ. It may not even bring up any particular characters that have already been portrayed or named in prior media. The game was set in the 1800s, a period that has not been explored in any prior media, and it opens up the opportunity for the developers to build everything from scratch. The game itself will allow you to build your own characters from scratch, and tell what are presumably original stories unique to the game’s universe. In keeping with this intention, it makes sense that everything about the game is being built from the ground up.
For what it’s worth, we don’t know who the composer for these teasers or Hogwarts Legacy is. The game is being developed by Avalanche Software, a 27 year game studio that has 11 years experience working on Disney licensed games. In between their transition from being owned by Disney to Warner Bros, some staff may have left the company and new people hired since, so if there was a signature sound to these Avalanche games we may or may not be hearing that sound. Still, it would be interesting if this game will be boasting of these atmospheric tunes from some expert hands.
If you’re reading this and haven’t seen the tours or heard the music yet, you can watch and hear it all right here.
Hogwarts Legacy is releasing on September 10 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S and X, and Windows. It is also planned for release on the Nintendo Switch. An official date for the Switch release has not yet been given but there has been one rumored.
Source: Reddit