"Harry Potter" would have been a series of video games if Nintendo's plans for it panned out in 1998 after reports reveal that the game maker wanted the rights to the franchise. However, Nintendo eventually lost to Warner Brothers because author J. K. Rowling wanted films.
According to IGN, Nintendo wanted the exclusive multimedia rights for the "Harry Potter" series a year after its release in 1997, but instead of making eight movies out of it like Warner Brothers did, the game company wanted to focus only on creating video games.
Unseen64, a site that digs up cancelled or unreleased games, revealed the information, mentioning that Nintendo of America had one week in 1998 "to pitch 'Harry Potter' author J.K Rowling for the rights to the Harry Potter universe."
Around that time, Nintendo NST halted production on Ridge Racer 64, Crystalis, and Bionic Commando to create prototypes for the "Harry Potter" series for Nintendo 63, GameCube, and Game Boy Advance.
The week was apparently filled with "insanely furious scribbling things to the digital artists to create animations for mock game demos," a previous Nintendo employee shared.
Nintendo did not just submit a single game for the pitch. Euro Gamer adds, "A spin-off based around the wizarding sport of Quidditch was also worked on, although plans never progressed beyond the concept of drawing and basic animations."
During that week, disagreements about the art style to be used also ensued.
A previous employee reveals some artists wanting to follow Rowling's idea to keep things British by using art style similar to the original British book covers. However, higher-ups of the game making company allegedly wanted something different.
"I had to revamp my initial designs and go more manga/Japanese-I had a big fight about that, but my boss insisted," reveals the source.
Ultimately, Nintendo's pitch was turned down because of their focus on games only, while their competitors covered TV and film on top of games.
Universal and Disney also went after the series, both losing to Warner Brothers, which turned to Electronic Arts (EA) for game adaptations, including a Quidditch spin-off.
However, according to Tech Times, EA's tie-ins were not worthwhile. "Aside from a few bright spots, the titles were all trash," says the article. "Think about it: there could have been an entire library of amazing Nintendo 'Harry Potter' games, instead of the shovelware the EA produced."
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