GDQ bans Hogwarts Legacy and every other Harry Potter game

GDQ bans Hogwarts Legacy and every other Harry Potter game from its charity speedrunning competitions.

Marco Wutz | Feb 20, 2023

GDQ bans Hogwarts Legacy and every other Harry Potter game /

Games Done Quick (GDQ) is known for organizing speedrunning events and streaming them to donate the proceeds to charity – the first event was held in 2010 and quickly found popularity, the latest iteration in 2023 raising $2.6 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation and drawing tens of thousands of viewers online.

While GDQ is pretty open about the kinds of games participants can speedrun through during an official event, the organizer does have a list of banned titles, which includes any games banned on Twitch as well as those with an Adult Only ESRB rating.

In preparation of the next charity speedrunning marathon, Summer Games Done Quick 2023, a few new banned titles have been added to the list – first and foremost the hugely successful and popular Hogwarts Legacy, but with it all other Harry Potter games (thanks, Gamerant). While Hogwarts Legacy has not been out for very long, the older Harry Potter games were eligible for speedruns in all other editions of GDQ events held so far.

Hogwarts Legacy Phineas Nigellus Black — No Hogwarts Legacy at GDQ events, says the organizer / Avalanche Software

Hogwarts Legacy, developed by Avalanche Software, has been mired in controversy ever since Harry Potter author J.K. Rowlings made transphobic comments on social media. Activists fought for a widespread boycott of the game because of that, but ultimately interest in the open-world RPG proved far too great for this to have any effect other than making the online debate around the title extremely toxic. You can read more about the Hogwarts Legacy controversy in the linked explainer.

GDQ's updated list states that the ban of Hogwarts Legacy and the Harry Potter series is “subject to further review in the future.” It’s possible that the organization simply does not want a part of any of the controversy surrounding the wizarding franchise, so it decided the games would have to sit out the next event.

Check out our complete Hogwarts Legacy walkthrough for more information about the game.

Published Feb 20, 2023

MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg