Upon noticing the point-of-no-return concept on Reddit this morning, my initial thought was a direct correlation to another popular wizard-themed Kickstarter MMORPG.
To clarify, given that few people might be familiar with these titles at all, I decided it would be useful to dedicate some time to distinguishing between different games within our MMOs series – specifically those featured in our “You’ve Never Heard Of” column.
As we previously covered in November, DragonfiAR’s ambitious project, , was intended to be a fully immersive digital reality experience where players would take on the role of spell-slinging wizards in a massive multiplayer online world. Although it launched its Kickstarter campaign at the end of the previous year, it was ultimately cancelled after attracting just 16 backers and raising only $1,433. According to a memo circulated by the team in December, however, the project will still move forward despite this lukewarm response. Although the website remains active, there has been no discernible activity on the game’s social media platforms or development blog since then?
Whether it’s again, characterized as a free-to-play MMORPG or cell-based game from Swiss developer NOEZ TeCH. While not directly using the Harry Potter intellectual property, this project’s similarity is striking – a virtual certainty that will leave fans wondering if J.K. Rowling was an influence. Kickstarter reportedly launched its first project, which reached a funding goal of around $11,000 USD, a relatively modest sum considering it had secured support from only 95 backers. A standalone preview of the recreation is already available for download; the full game itself is expected to release in spring 2025.
Notably, Claims boasts to be the “first MMORPG AR cellular recreation,” repeating its earlier declaration from October. However, as veteran MMO gamers are aware, we’ve had numerous such games already, including MMOARG, which has been around for six years – and that’s not even considering titles like Star Realms and Wizards Unite. Although it’s often claimed that this game is the world’s first Harry Potter cellular MMOARG, in reality, it wasn’t even the pioneer; Niantic’s offering had already risen to fame before vanishing from the scene. While that statement doesn’t necessarily rule out exploring more projects of this nature, acknowledging our lack of understanding about the market demand would likely foster greater trust with backers if we had a clearer grasp on what we were getting ourselves into.
