The world's greatest charity speedrunning tournament, Games Done Quick (GDQ), has now banned Hogwarts Legacy and other Harry Potter games from their events.
The most recent version of Games Done Quick's speedrun submission guide forbids speedruns of Hogwarts Legacy and other Harry Potter games, the largest charity speedrunning competition in the world recently announced.
GDQ Bans Hogwarts Legacy From Events
According to a newly added section of the guide titled "Disallowed Games," which wasn't present on the page as recently as January 6 according to Wayback Machine, runners are expressly prohibited from submitting speedruns of the Harry Potter games to the twice-yearly charity event.
It's difficult to see this ban as anything other than a reaction to the association with Harry Potter author JK Rowling, whose transphobic remarks have come to overshadow pretty much every creative work associated with her in the last few years. GDQ doesn't specifically explain why Hogwarts Legacy and other Harry Potter games have been banned from future GDQ events, our request for a comment hasn't been answered by the time of writing.
There is also a great discussion about the Games Done Quick ban on Reddit. Feel free to read into it.
It's likely that GDQ, which has hosted a number of trans streamers and recently postponed an event in Florida due in part to that state's anti-LGBT+ laws, has no wish to be associated with the author.
