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Nintendo reportedly once tried to make Harry Potter games

Michael McWhertor is a journalist with more than 17 years of experience covering video games, technology, movies, TV, and entertainment.

Before J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books were adapted for film — and in turn adapted into a series of video games — Nintendo took a stab at securing the license and pitched a pair of games based on the fantasy novels, according to a report from Unseen64.

Nintendo of America's internal development team, Nintendo Software Technology, was reportedly tasked with pitching concepts for Harry Potter back in 1998, according to Unseen64. Those concepts included a third-person action-adventure game and a game based on quidditch, the team sport played on flying broomsticks in the Harry Potter novels.

Nintendo apparently intended to develop Harry Potter games for the Game Boy Advance, GameCube and Nintendo 64, had it secured the license.

Warner Bros. ultimately went on to lock down the rights to the Harry Potter franchise in 1999. It developed a series of films that grossed more than $7.7 billion at the box office and licensed the brand to Electronic Arts, which developed games based on the eight movies. A dedicated quidditch game was also developed by EA, as were some spin-offs, like a pair of Lego Harry Potter games and Harry Potter for Kinect which were published by Warner Bros. Interactive.

Head over to Unseen64 to see some concept art from the games, including Nintendo's reported take on Hogwarts.

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