‘Harry Potter: Wizards Unite’ Beta Live in Australia, New Zealand

By Brian Crecente

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Niantic’s location-based augmented reality mobile game “Harry Potter: Wizards Unite” kicked off a beta in Austra and New Zealand on Wednesday.

Those interested, and who live in the area or have an account from the area, can download the game from the App Store or Google Play to start testing the game and “help provide feedback that will improve the game experience.”

Those of you stuck outside the confines of those two lovely countries can sign up to receive notification when the game comes to your area at WizardsUnite.Com. You can also pre-register for the game on Google Play.

The company also wants that the game is in beta.

“Please note this is a beta version of : Wizards Unite. Features, available languages, design, and overall appearance are not final. The product might be buggy and unstable at times. We’re looking forward to your feedback so that we can improve the game experience.”

The game, which is being co-developed and co-published by WB Games San Francisco and under the Portkey Games Label, was shown off to a gathering of journalists in San Francisco earlier this year.

Variety tested the game and chatted with San Francisco studio head and vice president Jonathan Knight during the press event.

The game introduces a new storyline to the Potterverse that puts the secrecy of the wizarding world at risk due to something called the “Calamity” — a mysterious event that resulted in magical artifacts, fantastic beasts, enchanted inns and dangerous creatures appearing all over the world.

The core interaction of the game operates a lot like “Pokemon Go,” with players walking around in the real world to discover magic places and battle creatures. In this case, though, it’s werewolves and death eaters instead of pikachu and charmander.