Leading speedrunning event bans Hogwarts Legacy and all other Harry Potter games from future events

Hogwarts Legacy house differences — (Image credit: Avalanche Software)

Speedrunning charity event, Games Done Quick, has banned Hogwarts Legacy from appearing during any of its future events.

As spotted by TheGamer, the recently released Harry Potter game has been added to Games Done Quick's 'Disallowed Games' list, meaning it cannot be submitted for consideration and won't appear during future event streams. According to Games Done Quick's website, Hogwarts Legacy and all of the other games on the list "have content, views, or an origin that we have deemed unsuitable for our stream."

It isn't just Hogwarts Legacy that has been banned from the event, all other games in the Harry Potter series are now also not allowed to be submitted - however, this is "subject to further review in the future." The Warner Bros. game is just one of several that the Games Done Quick team doesn't want to see, including Games with an ESRB rating of Adults Only, the Five Nights at Freddy's Series, and God of War (2005).

Games Done Quick previously hosted Summer Games Done Quick 2022, which raised over $3 million for the medical charity Doctors Without Borders. Prior to this, the event raised $2.7 million for the organization Prevent Cancer during Awesome Games Done Quick in January 2021.

The next thing planned by Games Done Quick is the "all-women speedrunning event" Frost Fatales, which is set to take place from February 26 - March 4, 2023, and will be raising money for the Malala Fund.

It's not surprising that Games Done Quick has kept its distance from Hogwarts Legacy. Last month, major gaming forum Resetera also issued a total ban on discussion of Hogwarts Legacy, expanding on its previous rules which said that users could only discuss the game's promotional material in a single, ongoing thread.

The release of Hogwarts Legacy has been the subject of criticism and debate due to J.K. Rowling's public stance on gender identity, which continues to challenge the inclusivity at the heart of the Harry Potter community. Here is our explainer on the Hogwarts Legacy controversy.

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After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training. My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.