Two days before the release, calls for a boycott are piling up. Hogwarts Legacy: Hogwarts Legacy, the latest video game inspired by the “Harry Potter” saga, faces a wave of rejection in the United States after the positions considered transphobic by JK Rowling, author and creator of the famous fictional character.
“It’s not a question of whether this game has objectionable content – but of saying that supporting this game in some way validates the very, very dubious positions” of the author of Harry Potter, believes Will Overgard, a known streamer as VikingBlonde.
This 36-year-old former video game studio employee called on social media for his “friends and colleagues” to “not support” Hogwarts Legacyeither by buying it or creating YouTube streams or videos about the game. His video has since been viewed more than two million times.
Between pure boycott and discussions around the game
JK Rowling is accused of having become one of the most influential opponents of the transgender rights movement in recent years, seeing it as an attack on women’s rights.
Critics of the game extended to part of the specialized press. In France, the Gamekult site notably announced on Twitter that it refused to “give an echo to a brand whose economic and media weight benefits a woman erected as the figurehead of a movement of hatred”, reiterating the accusations of transphobia to its against.
A transgender character in the game
And since the promotional campaign of Hogwarts Legacy in full swing, calls not to contribute to its fortune through the payment of gambling-related royalties have flourished online. The recent announcement that a transgender character would be included in the game has not appeased the debates.
Within LGBT+ gaming communities, according to Cody Mejeur, a professor of media studies at the University at Buffalo, trans gamers are split between advocates of an outright boycott of the game and those who take a critical, based on limited interactions and discussions around the game.