Hogwarts Legacy gets booed at The Game Awards over Rowling's TERF behaviour


hogwarts legacy booed game awards jk rowling a dragon with an author's head stares at a student with a wand

Geoff Keighley’s annual The Game Awards was another lively celebration of video games, including many awesome announcements. However, that happiness didn’t last, as Warner Bros’ Hogwarts Legacy discovered when it was booed for achieving this year’s “Most Anticipated Game” award.

Hogwarts Legacy has been drenched in controversy since its announcement. While it looks like a dream Harry Potter game, the politics of creator J.K. Rowling and hatred of trans people has ruined the game’s reputation.

Rather than apologize and move on, Rowling has doubled down on her politics, making her TERF stance her whole online presence. The author’s harsh stance has led to an overall negative atmosphere surrounding Harry Potter media, including next year’s game.

The lack of enthusiasm for the new Hogwarts Legacy game came to ahead at The Game Awards. While fans would cheer loudly anytime God of War: Ragnarok or Elden Ring was nominated for something, there were tepid responses, and even boos, for the Harry Potter game.

Considering the reputation most gamers have online, hearing them show their lack of support for a J.K. Rowling game was great. Gamers haven’t always had the best reputation online when it comes to gender politics, so this was actually refreshing to hear (or not hear).

Just to be clear, we don’t vilify anyone who is excited about the Hogwarts Legacy video game. Harry Potter raised a generation of people with good values and helped them with their identity; regardless of what J.K. Rowling thinks of them. Separating the art from the artist can be hard but people do it all the time.

Quick aside, if you like H.P. Lovecraft’s work, don’t look up what he thinks about people of color or what he named his cat. Especially that cat part.

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Hogwarts Legacy comes to PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, and PC on February 10, 2023. A Nintendo Switch version is planned for a later date.

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