Niantic has announced that Harry Potter: Wizards Unite – which hoped to repeat the success of Pokémon Go within J.K. Rowling’s universe – will be shutting down and, to make matters worse, any purchases made in the game cannot be reversed.

On 6th December 2021 the game will be removed from online stores (the Apple App Store, Google Play Store and Samsung Galaxy Store) but downloaded copies will remain playable until 31st January 2022 which is when the servers will be shut down.

6th December is also the last day that players can spend real money on in-game purchases, though paying for a dying game may not be the best use of money.

Those who agree with that statement, but may have already made purchases before the shut down announcement, seem to be out of luck.

This is confirmed by the Q&A section under the announcement of the closure. The relevent part of this is as follows:

Q: Can I use my in-game currency and everything I’ve collected? Will I get a refund on purchases?

A: Players will not be able to receive a refund on past purchases, except where otherwise required by law. You will be able to spend your remaining Gold balance and items before the game closes on January 31, 2022. We have a variety of fun gameplay changes during the remaining few months, so you will have the full opportunity to enjoy your remaining Gold. We will turn off the ability to make in-app purchases on December 6, 2021.

On places like Twitter and Reddit where the announcement was shared there is a general sense of disappointment not just because of money used on the game but also the time spent playing and the lack of reason why the shutdown is happening.

Said announcement doesn’t address the reason for the closure at all but simply reminisces on the past of the game and the amount of players it managed to get.

“Over the years, millions of witches and wizards around the globe have embarked on real-world adventures, coming together to keep magic hidden safe within the wizarding world while joining forces to take on The Unforgivable… We are incredibly thankful to every single person in our amazing community of witches and wizards for adventuring with us out in the real world,” the statement reads.

Some have theorised that the shutdown is in part because of the recently released Pikmin Bloom. Niantic has raked in billions of dollars because of Pokémon Go but maintaining three live service titles could prove difficult.

That is just conjecture and we won’t know the true reason behind the Harry Potter: Wizards Unite death unless Niantic reveals it.

For those still playing the game and want to make the most out of it before it goes, there will be several events happening in the game over the next few months outlined here.