Hogwarts Legacy and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Might Be in the Same Boat

2023 has been a massive year for video games, and in particular, those that belong to major entertainment franchises. There have been a surprising number of licensed video games this year, with Star Wars Jedi: Survivor probably being one of the most talked-about games of the entire year. Somehow, even Star Wars pales in comparison to Hogwarts Legacy, a title that has managed to remain the best-selling game of 2023 despite some extreme competition and copious amounts of controversy.

But Hogwarts Legacy and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor haven’t been the only games based on popular IP this year. Scraping in just at the last second, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora recently hit store shelves, and it’s a pretty solid game, especially for avid fans of James Cameron’s Avatar universe. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora doesn’t share too many gameplay similarities with Hogwarts Legacy, but there are a few big factors that have ended up landing the two in the same boat.

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Hogwarts Legacy’s Sequel Needs to Achieve a Better Blend of Student and Explorer

Hogwarts Legacy, despite having many strengths, also has many flaws, and its balance of student life and open-world adventure is one of them.

Hogwarts Legacy and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Are in the Same Boat

Hogwarts Legacy and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Sequels Seem Likely

From the moment Hogwarts Legacy released back in February, it’s been the best-selling game of the year, and that hasn’t changed. Within just two weeks, Hogwarts Legacy had sold 12 million copies. With the release of the Xbox One and PS4 versions of the game, Hogwarts Legacy sold over 15 million copies. Even now, after Zelda, Star Wars, Final Fantasy, and most importantly, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Hogwarts Legacy has still held onto its top sales position, which is extremely rare.

While Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora has not been nearly as successful, it is still doing fairly well, at least according to the UK physical sales charts. According to GfK’s statistics, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora debuted at the number five spot on the UK’s sales charts, which is pretty respectable. Of course, this doesn’t factor in the game’s digital sales or its performance in any other world regio, but it’s a solid start, and it seems likely that it’ll make Ubisoft a nice profit when all is said and done.

Hogwarts Legacy and Avatar’s Sequels Have Clear Areas for Improvement

With Hogwarts Legacy being such an unprecedented success and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora likely doing quite well, sequels for both games seem very likely at this point. But this is where Hogwarts Legacy and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora are really in the same boat. Though both games had a fairly solid critical reception, they were far from perfect, and any potential sequels for either franchise would need to go above and beyond to try and improve on those areas.

For Hogwarts Legacy, the game’s RPG mechanics are what probably need the most work for a sequel, with new gear types, new quest types, more of an emphasis on the school and student aspects of the series, and more companion-related mechanics all being highly-requested features. For Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, the biggest points of criticism were that the game leaned too heavily on the same-old Ubisoft open-world formula fans have seen for a decade and that the game’s story mostly felt like a retelling of the first Avatar movie. It’s imperative that if sequels do happen for these games, then they need to improve in these primary areas, or they could just end up feeling like cheap cash grabs.

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Legacy

$42 $70 Save $28

Hogwarts Legacy is a game that allows players to explore an open world, including locations such as Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, the Forbidden Forest, and the surrounding Overland area. Players can create their unique witch or wizard character, learn spells, brew potions, grow plants, and tend to magical beasts during their journey. Sorting into a Hogwarts house and forging relationships with other characters enable players to master various skills and shape their characters’ development.

The game features an original wizarding world adventure set in an unexplored era, where players uncover a hidden truth from the past. Challenging encounters await, such as battles against trolls, Dark Wizards, goblins, and a dangerous villain who poses a threat to the fate of the world.

Franchise

Harry Potter

Released

February 10, 2023

ESRB

T For Teen Due To Blood, Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, Use of Alcohol

How Long To Beat

26 Hours

Metascore

84