Kickstarter for Harry Potter Board Game Cancelled

Credit: Unsplash

Apparently, the cause was… the Presidential Election?

For as long as Harry Potter has been a thing, its fans have been trying to make Quidditch a thing, in one form or another. There is an actual Quidditch league in Middlebury, Vermont founded back in 2005 at Middlebury College that has been joined by several prolific universities around the world. Since you can’t actually fly on a broomstick, though, that game is less like Quidditch and more like a cross between touch football and dodgeball. With that in mind, if we can’t make Quidditch real on the field, maybe we can make it real in our minds with an immersive board game. This is why a Kickstarter was launched last week for an official Wizarding World Quidditch board game, titled Catch the Snitch. Unfortunately, it seems real world events have stymied the fantastical once again.


The crowdfunding campaign launched on November 5 with a goal of $450,000, but after only 4 days and $64,000, the campaign has been suddenly cancelled. Strangely, however, the cause of this cancellation wasn’t anything internal like staffing problems or copyright. Rather, according to the official cancellation notice, the blame apparently lies on the US Presidential Election.

“The current situation of uncertainty in the world derived from the electoral campaign in the United States, is negatively affecting our Kickstarter,” the announcement read. “It’s generating many technical problems on the web and freezing our communication strategy plan.

“All social networks and platforms are having considerably less traffic, which has a very negative impact on advertising campaigns. This implies that they are not having the scope that they would have in a normal situation.”

Many commenters and contributors to the Kickstarter have scratched their heads over this, as anyone who would be interested in this campaign would likely have found it fairly easily, election or not. Some have claimed that those running the campaign may be trying to deflect blame from more likely causes, such as the game’s projected price tag of $120 for the base version, or recent frustrations with comments made by J.K. Rowling. Whatever the cause, I guess if you want some Quidditch in your life, you’ll have to book a flight to Vermont.

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