As a competitive sport, Quidditch is broken. Those of you who have read the Harry Potter novels will know that catching the elusive winged ball earns the Seeker’s team 150 points and ends the game. This renders everything else that happens in the arena irrelevant, and while the books do a good job of maintaining the drama, changes were needed from the start for the PS5 and PS4 spin-off Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions.

And here we are: catching the Snitch has been reduced to just 30 points – and it no longer ends the game. This, according to the developer, still gives teams plenty of opportunity to extend their lead or stage late comebacks, while maintaining some semblance of balance overall. As in the novels, you still get 10 points for throwing the Quaffle through one of the opponent’s three goalposts, so that aspect remains unchanged.

Judging by the trailer embedded above, it all looks and sounds like a lot of fun. The single-player campaign takes you from a friendly match with the Weasleys to the Wizarding World Cup, with the annual Hogwarts Tournaments and Triwizard Championship covering the competitions in between. You earn skill points as you progress to improve your abilities, and you can play in all positions as either a custom character or an iconic Harry Potter hero – including PS1-era Hagrid.

There are various brooms to unlock, each suited to unique positions and playstyles. And you can further personalize your mount with paint jobs and the like. One thing that is also worth repeating here is that there are NO Microtransactions planned; while it’s possible that more cosmetic items will be added later if the title proves popular, the publisher insists that all of the outing’s content can be unlocked by playing.