Not long ago, Warner Bros. Gaming CEO J.B. Perrette said that the division would focus on mobile, free-to-play, and games-as-services. His words scared Hogwarts Legacy fans, who are sure that the new policy will affect the sequel.
Recently, a petition began to go viral online, the initiators of which oppose turning Hogwarts Legacy 2 into a game with microtransactions and other elements of online services. According to them, the success of the first part was that it was an exclusively single-player adventure without the need to grind to advance through the story. The latter is often used by developers to push gamers to buy powerful equipment for real money. One of the most striking examples is the latest Assassin's Creed. In addition, the petition authors believe that multiplayer elements will only ruin Hogwarts Legacy 2:
We don't want a Harry Potter game with forced multiplayer elements as that's not what we play a game such as Hogwarts Legacy for, we want to meet the great citizens of Hogwarts and engage in fun quests. The few successful Live Service games such as Fortnite, Destiny 2, Apex Legends, League of Legends, Counter Strike, and Helldivers 2 and they are successful not because their a live service and they can make a ton of money but they provided a unique experience different from everyone else and enticed gamers with something they actually wanted to play. The reason why so many Live Service games fail is because they are not unique experiences people want to play which leads to services ending early and shutting down soon after launch.
At the time of writing, the petition has collected more than 11.3 thousand signatures with a goal of 15 thousand.
As for Hogwarts Legacy 2, there is no confirmation that it will be a games-as-a-service. However, the project will definitely be a priority for Warner Bros., as was officially announced in September. In addition, an expanded edition of Hogwarts Legacy may be in development.