Games Done Quick (GDQ), the biggest charity speedrunning tournament in the world, has just banned Hogwarts Legacy and other Harry Potter games from its competitions.
The world’s biggest charity speedrunning competition, Games Done Fast, has revealed a new edition of its speedrun submission rule. In it, they explicitly exclude speedruns of Hogwarts Legacy and other Harry Potter titles.
According to a freshly updated section of the handbook headed “Disallowed Games.” Wayback Machine indicates was not there on the website as recently as January 6. Runners are barred explicitly from entering Harry Potter speedruns to the twice-yearly charity event.
While J.K. Rowling’s transphobic views have come to eclipse pretty much every creative endeavor affiliated with her in the past several years. It’s hard to understand this ban as anything other than a response to the connection with Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling. Our request for a statement from GDQ about the ban on Hogwarts Legacy and other Harry Potter games from future GDQ events has not yet been responded to.
It seems probable that GDQ does not desire to be linked with the author, given that it has hosted a number of trans broadcasters and recently postponed an event in Florida owing in part to that state’s anti-LGBT+ legislation.
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