Hogwarts Legacy has brought the Harry Potter magic to life for millions of fans worldwide, but the details surrounding a reportedly canceled DLC plan highlight where the game comes up short. While the concept of finally being able to live vicariously through the witches and wizards created in the game is nice, it’s still lacking in some key areas.

While the game has received some free post-launch updates, it’s always been lacking in the DLC department despite featuring obvious opportunities for a full expansion. Nothing was ever announced as far as upcoming DLC was concerned, but rumors surrounded a planned Definitive Edition of the game that would have come alongside some additional content.

Hogwarts Legacy DLC Would Have Focused On A Companion

Additional Companion For Your Witch Or Wizard

According to a new report, Warner Brothers recently canceled a DLC for Hogwarts Legacy that was meant to restore a cut companion storyline. Unfortunately, according to Bloomberg‘s discussion with an undisclosed source, “Warner canceled the project this week in part due to concerns that the amount of content was not substantial enough to justify the price being considered.” It’s ultimately a frustrating reason, as reworking the pricing plan or developing additional content could have also been solutions.

“Part of the plan was to restore a storyline tied to one of the original game’s companions that was cut during development, the people said.”

The plans for the DLC were not publicly disclosed, so it’s difficult to say what exactly would have been covered. The primary implication is that one of the four existing companions in the game would have received a more robust companion story, but there has not been any official confirmation on which companion would have been covered. Without more specific details, it’s also not impossible that the statement is referring to a planned companion that didn’t make it into the game at all.

It is unclear whether the DLC was canceled due to the sequel of Hogwarts Legacy being in the works, and in that case, maybe they will add the canceled content to the upcoming game. While it doesn’t sound like the DLC would have added anything crazy to the base game, it definitely would have given the game more depth and immersion.

If Hogwarts Legacy had added a new companion altogether, it could have been an opportunity to tie one more closely to familiar characters from the Harry Potter series. Even attached to a relatively minor character, having something like a prefect related to later prefects like Hannah Abbot or Anthony Goldstein could have been interesting. Allowing players to have a house elf as a companion would have also been a creative opportunity, perhaps with an ancestor for Dobby or something similar.

Companions Are Underwhelming In Hogwarts Legacy

They Don’t Add Any Significance To The Game

Currently, you can choose one of four companions to explore this magical world with: Natsai Onai, Sebastian Sallow, and Poppy Sweeting. Natsai is a Gryffindor whose mother was a Divination professor, Sebastian Sallow is a Slytherin who rises well above the house stereotypes, Amit Thakkar is a Ravenclaw who aspires to be a magical historian, and Poppy Sweeting is a Hufflepuff with one of the more interesting questlines.

Although all the companions have their strong points, they’re relatively lackluster overall, especially in their interactions and speech. Other than particular missions, you can’t recruit them for general exploring. When you’re not completing a mission with them, there is limited interaction that can be had with any of them. Adding a cut storyline involving any of them back to the game could have made them feel more involved as a whole.

Hogwarts Legacy‘s companions ultimately feel more like NPCs than true companions, which the canceled DLC could have helped to address. Even features like allowing you to choose whether you want the companions to follow you around during exploration or flying may seem small but could have had a huge impact on the game. This alone probably would have redeemed the current companion choices.

What Hogwarts Legacy’s DLC Could Have Covered

A Missed Opportunity To Give Us More

Along with the new companion storyline, the report mentions storylines in plural, which could have been another opportunity to expand the cast of characters or flesh out the ones that are currently there. Although the concept has been shut down in the past, the DLC could have added Quidditch to the game along with tournaments. Considering the release of the standalone Quidditch Champions game and the concerns about the DLC’s value, it’s unlikely that this would have been added, but it’s still a disappointing omission.

One interesting possibility is that a character without a true companion status in the game, like Ominis Gaunt, could have received a full companion storyline. Reddit user lunarisita cites the indication of a planned Gaunt Manor in the game’s files as support for this idea, which could have been an interesting way to tie things more closely to the story of Lord Voldemort.

Beyond that, there are plenty of opportunities that the DLC could have taken to add some quests involving the darker side of this wizarding world. Allowing you to practice more dark magic, making difficult choices, and maybe joining forces with dark wizards would add more emotions to this anemic-feeling game, especially if taking this path came with real consequences.

More interaction options are another aspect that should have been added in the DLC, allowing players more of a chance to increase their standing with NPCs or professors. Currently, choices mean little when it comes to the impact they have on the storyline. Adding this aspect could help freshen the stale feeling the game has developed over time.

Hogwarts Legacy is ultimately an impressive game even without DLC, but some of its lacking elements weaken the experience as a whole. As the added story that was supposed to be in the DLC was apparently cut during the development of the base game, losing that opportunity for storytelling yet again is an even harsher blow. Currently, to complete the game 100%, you need to invest up to 70 or so hours. It is unclear how many hours of gameplay the DLC would have given added to Hogwarts Legacy, but any addition would have been better than nothing.