Unseen64 came out recently and revealed that way back in 1998, Nintendo made a pitch for the full licensing rights to the Harry Potter franchise - producing adaptations of all books as they released. They didn't say when in 1998, but, to paint a time frame, Chamber of Secrets was released in the UK in July that year (and in the US the following year). Nintendo Software Technology (or NST) was tasked with developing the concept for the pitch. NST, if you're not aware, is the little used development team of Nintendo of America. Over the years, they've made some Ridge Racer games (a Namco franchise), a Bionic Commando follow-up (a Capcom franchise), a port of Crystalis (a SNK game), and the VirtualConsole translation of Sin and Punishment (a Treasure game). In particular, they were responsible for games meant to appeal to western audiences - Pokémon Puzzle League, Wave Race: Blue Storm, 1080° Avalanche, Mario vs. Donkey Kong, and Metroid Prime Hunters. Despite the North American focus, apparently their ultimate pitch somehow wound up using a Japanese animation look. Unseen64 released some early concept art that reflected more the artstyle used on the UK cover for Philosopher's Stone. Pitches were developed for a third-person adventure adaptations of the book as well as spin-off Quidditch games. The rights in question, apparently, were for everything - not just video games. Which is probably a big reason Nintendo didn't get the rights (plus the manga direction they were headed, since J.K. Rowling was already stressing an all-British cast and focus in any adaptations). But who knows. Maybe we would have no Potter movies. Maybe Nintendo would have entered the movie industry. Maybe they would have sublicensed the film rights and we'd end up in more or less the same place we did - but with Nintendo making Potter games instead of Electronic Arts. And in this alternate reality, maybe they'd give Disney the theme park rights they tried for too haha Because, oh man those EA games weren't good. And we might have had Harry Potter in Super Smash Bros. lol Also, wow it's weird to think of Nintendo making a licensed game. I can't really think of too many - Popeye on the NES, a Japanese Peanuts game on the Super Famicom, and of course GoldenEye on the N64. GoldenEye and it's success wasn't too long before, maybe Nintendo thought that was a good trend to continue
