The new Harry Potter game is a hit. Here's why some trans gamers wish it wasn't

A new Harry Potter video game is being boycotted by trans people and allies in the gaming community who say buying and playing the game puts money in J.K. Rowling's pocket.

The Harry Potter author has been heavily scrutinized for expressing views critics say are transphobic, vilify trans people and play into dangerous stereotypes amid a swell of anti-trans violence, legislation and sentiments across North America and Western Europe.

"Even if some of my friends are big Harry Potter fans, they're choosing not to support this game in particular, because J.K. Rowling does still own the [intellectual property] and therefore is making money off of the game," said Aren Zoë, a gamer in southern Ontario.

She and other trans people in the gaming community spoke to CBC News about efforts to boycott Hogwarts Legacy, even as it introduces a trans character, so long as Rowling continues to hold a financial stake in the Wizarding World universe.

CBC News reached out to Rowling, but her spokesperson Mark Hutchinson said via email that the author would not be commenting.

What's the boycott about?

Hogwarts Legacy is an open-world, role-playing video game that allows the player to design their own character and roam the Harry Potter universe.

While Rowling had no creative involvement in the project, she will get a cut of its profits, being the franchise's intellectual property holder alongside Warner Bros. As of last week, Hogwarts Legacy had made $850 million US in sales since its Feb. 10 release, the biggest-ever launch for Warner Bros. Games, which did not respond to questions about how much Rowling stood to make in royalties.

Zoë says some people might not understand the harm caused by buying and playing Hogwarts Legacy. 

Critics say giving money to a game that benefits Rowling financially is harmful, as she has questioned the use of gender-neutral language and the right of trans people to use gendered bathrooms. She has also opposed Scottish legislation that would make it easier for people to legally change their genders

In response, a loosely organized boycott effort began in anticipation of the game's release.

There were calls to boycott Twitch, a website where people can livestream themselves playing video games for the entertainment of others, because the site displayed Hogwarts Legacy ads.

However, streaming data provided by the website Streams Charts, which compiles streaming statistics, showed the game set a new record for the highest number of concurrent Twitch viewers, with a peak of 1.3 million viewers on the day it was released. Stream Charts said this feat solidified Hogwarts Legacy as "the most popular single-player game on Twitch."

The boycott also extended to news outlets dedicated to gaming culture, where some made an editorial decision not to review or write about the game, instead spotlighting games made by trans people or asking readers to donate to trans advocacy organizations like Trans Lifeline.

Did the boycott work?

"What I've seen of the boycott is that it was largely ineffective," said Samara-Jade Sendek, a games designer in Melbourne, Australia, who said whatever affection she used to have for the Harry Potter series has "now gone up in flames."

She said some of the tactics used by the boycotters might have backfired and just "emboldened people to play the game out of spite."

Others purchased the game but pledged to make a donation in support of trans causes. 

"So there's a lot of nuance involved," Sendek said. 

LISTEN | Can Harry Potter video game be separated from Potter author? 

Day 69:06Can Hogwarts Legacy stand apart from J.K. Rowling?

Hogwarts Legacy is a new open world video game that is set in the Harry Potter universe. That's an appealing offer for fans of the franchise, but it comes at a complicated time. Over the last four or five years, J.K. Rowling has made a series of hurtful comments about transgender people and over time, that’s led a lot of fans to reevaluate their relationship with the universe they loved. Jaina Grey is a writer and reviewer for Wired magazine. She is transgender, she grew up loving the world of Harry Potter and she used her review to reconcile some of her own feelings about the wizarding world and it's creator.

According to Carolyn Petit, a managing editor at U.S. gaming site Kotaku, Rowling "does absolutely have those fans on social media and elsewhere who celebrate her attitudes on trans people."

Some gamers defended their decision not to join the boycott, saying the game helped them fulfil a longtime fantasy of participating in the Harry Potter universe.

Others disagreed with the boycott's central purpose, including well-known Canadian Twitch streamer Félix Lengyel, who noted that people "fund all sorts of evil with their purchases across the board." 

Still others made an active decision to buy the game because they share Rowling's views.

Petit says the game's huge sales are sometimes seen "as a victory for people who think that trans people shouldn't exist or shouldn't have our full humanity recognized within society."

She says the fact that the Potter franchise is a corporate behemoth means it was unlikely the boycott was ever going to put a real dent in the game's success.

What about the game's trans character?

Further complicating things is the fact that Hogwarts Legacy introduces a trans character to the Harry Potter universe for the first time. It's the type of media representation that might have been welcomed were it not for the shadow critics say is cast by Rowling's association.

The character, named Sirona Ryan, makes several appearances throughout the game. Without using the word trans, she shares that her peers knew her as a wizard when she was a student, but that she is now a witch.

The inclusion of the character has received mixed reviews, some of which are in line with past criticism of the books: that characters with marginalized identities are tokenized, such as a Chinese character named "Cho Chang," or headmaster Albus Dumbledore, whose gay identity was confirmed by Rowling in 2007 but never directly addressed in the books.

Hogwarts Legacy and the Potter series have also been criticized as antisemitic for depicting goblins as frugal, hook-nosed creatures who run the Wizarding World's banking system.

While she believes media representation of trans people is important for young people figuring out their identities, Zoë says Sirona's presence "doesn't really counteract the harm that is being done." 

Petit, who has played the game, says it seems to her that people who worked on the game were trying to do what they could to minimize some of the more "pernicious aspects" of the Harry Potter world by including a trans character.

"I understand some people feeling that Sirona is a token, but you know, for me it's much better that she exists within the game and in the way that she does than it would be if she did not."

Why does it matter?

"As a subculture, gaming is very often sort of at the forefront of whatever cultural battles will be writ large across our society, soon after or concurrently," said Petit. 

In a critical analysis of Hogwarts Legacy she wrote after it was released, Petit said it was important to discuss the game and engage with it in the context of Rowling's comments.

"Gaming culture does not exist in a vacuum. Hogwarts Legacy does not exist in a vacuum," she told CBC News, noting that how culture responds to the ways the game and Rowling's views interact is very important. "I think [it] does speak to how we, as a larger culture, are also engaging with transphobia." 

For her part, Zoë says she doesn't think people are bad for wanting to play the game, but that it does matter when it comes to allyship.

"Those that want to call themselves very good allies of the trans community definitely need to think a lot more about whether they want to participate in that sort of activity."