Harry Potter: Wizards Unite now available across 140 countries, including in Southeast Asia

Pokémon Go creator Niantic and WB Games San Francisco have released the augmented reality (AR) game Harry Potter: Wizards Unite worldwide. 

Similar to Pokemon Go, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is an AR game that involves users in exploring, discovering, collecting and battling characters from the Wizarding World.

There are floating badges known as "Confoundables" which you need to collect and add to your "Registry". Areas with many "Confoundables" are indicated as flags on the map. You need to cast spells by swiping over a pattern on-screen once or a few times to retrieve the "Cofoundables", which in turn will help you level up and rank up in several skills. 

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyZpNZbuEF8[/embed]

Upon reaching a certain level, you can choose to be an Auror, Magizoologist or Professor with each profession having its own strengths and weakness.

Compared to Pokemon Go, Wizards Unite offers more landmarks and structures on the map that give players more to do while walking about. 

Spell-casting requires energy and you can re-charge your mana at inns, which serve random dishes with varying levels of energy. Greenhouses reward you with ingredients for brewing potions. Fortresses are like raids in Pokémon Go where you need to team up with other players in battles to receive more powerful items. 

Wizard Unite’s version of Pokemon Go’s eggs are "Portkey Portmanteaus", which can be found in the wild. To open them, you’ll need your permanently equipped "Golden Keys" or the finite "Silver Keys" (which can be bought or earned). Opening them opens up a portal to transport you to an AR room, where you can move around, examine, and gather items and rewards. 

Available for iOS and Android, the game can now be downloaded in over 140 countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Hong Kong. 

This article was first published in Hardware Zone; additional reporting by AsiaOne.