Warner Bros hiring for online systems has fans questioning whether the sequel will abandon single-player focus
Warner Bros Games is hiring someone to build online multiplayer systems for a Wizarding World game. The job posting has sparked intense debate about what comes next for the franchise.
The backend engineer position at Avalanche Software, posted in December 2025, seeks someone to develop infrastructure for an “online multiplayer RPG.” The technical requirements are specific: matchmaking systems, player lobbies, data persistence, and server architecture.
The listing doesn’t mention Hogwarts Legacy 2 by name. It does say candidates would join “the team behind the blockbuster open world, action RPG Hogwarts Legacy.” For a studio that’s spent three years on one game, that’s a pretty clear signal.
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Warner Bros Already Planned This
Anyone surprised by multiplayer rumors hasn’t been paying attention to what Warner Bros executives have been saying.
In March 2024, Warner Bros Discovery’s gaming chief J.B. Perrette spoke at a Morgan Stanley conference about the company’s strategy. His comments about the Wizarding World were blunt.
“Rather than just launching a one-and-done console game,” Perrette said, “how do we develop a game around, for example, a Hogwarts Legacy or Harry Potter, that is a live-service where people can live and work and build and play in that world?”
He said this about a title that sold 40 million copies by being a complete, single-player adventure. No battle passes. No microtransactions. No pressure to log in daily. Players bought it, finished it, and loved it.
Warner Bros looked at that success and decided it needed to be more like Fortnite.
Three Games, Three Catastrophes, Half a Billion Lost
The publisher’s track record with live-service games makes their continued push baffling.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League launched in February 2024 and imploded immediately. Warner Bros reported a $200 million loss in their quarterly earnings. Player counts dropped from 13,000 at launch to under 100 within two months. The game shut down after 11 months.
MultiVersus managed to fail twice. The platform fighter launched in July 2022, peaked at 153,000 players on Steam, then lost 99.4% of its audience in seven months. Warner Bros shut it down in June 2023, spent nearly a year rebuilding it, relaunched in May 2024, and shut it down permanently in May 2025. Total writedown: $100 million.
Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions released in September 2024 as a free PlayStation Plus title and still lost 48% of its PlayStation 5 players in the first week.
Warner Bros has burned roughly $500 million trying to make live-service games work. The company keeps hiring for more anyway.
Two Separate Games or Multiplayer Elements in One?
Job postings throughout 2025 paint a confusing picture. Some listings sought developers for online multiplayer systems. Others wanted designers for single-player RPG content. All mentioned the Wizarding World.
This has fueled speculation that Avalanche might be developing two projects: a traditional sequel and a separate online game. That would explain why the backend engineer role doesn’t explicitly name the sequel.
CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels confirmed last year that a sequel is one of the company’s “biggest priorities.” He told investors the game is “a couple of years down the road.” Whether Hogwarts Legacy 2 includes cooperative gameplay, or whether online features exist in a standalone title, remains unclear.
The company focuses development on four franchises: Harry Potter, DC, Mortal Kombat, and Game of Thrones. Multiple Wizarding World projects could fit that strategy.
The Cancelled Expansion
Questions about the sequel’s direction intensified when Warner Bros scrapped the original game’s DLC in March 2025. Bloomberg reported the expansion would have added 10 to 15 hours of content, including storylines cut from the base game.
Warner Bros cancelled it because executives felt the content “wasn’t substantial enough to justify the price being considered.” They didn’t want to invest in single-player content for a game people had already purchased.
Those development resources went somewhere. The multiplayer job postings suggest where.
Why These Rumors Have Fans Divided
The community has split over what multiplayer elements would mean for Avalanche’s next game.
Some players have wanted cooperative features since the original released. An unofficial mod called HogWarp has built a following by adding basic co-op functionality to the first game. Players discuss wanting specific features: Quidditch matches against friends, cooperative exploration of the Forbidden Forest, dueling tournaments, and House Cup competitions where teams could compete.
“As someone who cherishes family time, I can’t help but imagine how amazing it would be to journey through Hogwarts with my wife and daughters,” one player wrote on Reddit about wanting co-op features.
Others see any online gameplay as the destruction of what made the original work. The game succeeded because it told a personal story about your character becoming a fifth-year student with unusual magical abilities. That doesn’t translate to dozens of players running through the same castle.
“There’s a billion co-op games filled to the brim with toxicity and microtransactions,” another player argued. “We need more single-player stories.”
The real fear isn’t about playing with friends. It’s about what comes with modern online games. Battle passes that expire. Cosmetic shops selling robes for real money. Time-limited events that punish players who can’t log in every week. Gameplay designed around engagement metrics rather than storytelling.
Players who wanted Quidditch in the original game probably didn’t imagine needing a season pass to access it.
What Warner Bros Isn’t Saying
Neither Warner Bros nor Avalanche Software has confirmed or denied anything about online features in upcoming Wizarding World games.
The backend engineer posting exists. The corporate strategy statements are on record. Everything else is guesswork.
Warner Bros hasn’t answered the questions fans actually care about. Will this be optional co-op or always-online? Can players still experience the story alone? Are microtransactions coming? Will there be battle passes and seasonal content? When will the company officially announce their plans?
The silence is strategic. Publishers don’t talk about games years before release. But that silence also lets speculation spiral.
The Netflix Wild Card
Netflix’s pending acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery adds another unknown variable to the equation.
The streaming company announced an $82.7 billion deal in December 2025. The transaction includes Warner Bros Games and is expected to close in September 2026.
Netflix has focused primarily on mobile games and hasn’t shown Warner Bros’ appetite for expensive live-service disasters. Whether new ownership changes plans for Wizarding World games is impossible to predict at this point.
What’s at Risk for the Sequel
The original succeeded by ignoring every trend in modern gaming. Avalanche made a complete adventure with no ongoing monetization, no seasonal content, and no requirement to play with others.
That approach moved 40 million copies and became one of the best-selling games ever made.
If Warner Bros forces online features into a sequel that doesn’t need them, they risk repeating their half-billion dollar failures. If they develop a separate online experience while protecting a traditional single-player sequel, they might satisfy both groups of fans.
The job postings indicate active development on something. Whether these multiplayer rumors about the sequel prove accurate, or whether Avalanche is building two different games, should become clearer in the coming months.
Right now, fans who want to return to Hogwarts don’t know if they’ll be going alone or if Warner Bros will turn their next magical journey into another failed live-service experiment.
Warner Bros Games and Avalanche Software did not respond to requests for comment.
