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As the madness around last year’s Pottermore launch revealed, any new content from J.K. Rowling that reveals more about the Wizarding World will be eagerly snapped up by fans. Next month's launch of the latest in a long line of Harry Potter video games might just be the next thing to send fans running to their consoles as Wonderbook: Book of Spells features original, new writing from Rowling herself along with groundbreaking technology.
Wonderbook is a new accessory that works with your Playstation Eye camera and Move controller, it takes the augmented reality technology used in the successful EyePet games and improves it significantly to create an entire book. The Book of Spells will be the first release using Wonderbook but there’s some pretty interesting games set for 2013 as well including Walking with Dinosaurs, a fascinating film noir style detective story for kids called Diggs: Nightcrawler, and naturally Disney has their fingers in this potentially lucrative pie as well.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1-xlgM7Eqk[/youtube]
The Book of Spells is set in the restricted section of Hogwarts library and is designed as an advanced textbook written by Miranda Goshawk over 200 years ago that will allow kids to learn how to cast spells from the series such as Incendio, Wingardium Leviosa, and Expelliarmus. Rowling has helped develop the game and has written history for many of the spells which I know I will be eager to read as I play. There will also be notes and spells scribbled in the book’s margins by previous students and a conundrum written by Rowling that leads you through the game as successful spell casting unlocks new stories.
I can’t wait to get my hands on the Wonderbook and have a go at casting some spells. Keep reading over the coming weeks to see our review of the game and our thoughts on the Wonderbook system. Expecto Patronum!
