Pottermore News

A writer on a Pottermore cheat page presented an interesting theory (and believable explanation) on the Chamber of Secrets in a post earlier this week.

The writer’s theory is purely based on the timing of the release of the chapter art showcases, which currently are posted once a week on the Pottermore Insider. He concludes that since the most recent chapter art highlighted was chapter five, the series of posts would end in late March/early April.

Over the last few weeks, Pottermore has been officially posting one set of fan art every week for each chapter in Book 1. There are a total of 17 chapters in book 1, and we recently posted the fan art for Chapter 5. At the rate of officially releasing one set of fan art every week, they will reach Chapter 17 at the end of March in early April.

If you think about it, it makes more logical sense to release book 2 after they have posted all the fan art for book 1, than to release it while they are in the middle of book 1. If anything, it will be released a few weeks after book 1′s fan art has all been posted, and not before.

Do you agree with the theory? We do, though, to a certain extent. We agree that Chamber of Secrets will be released after the chapter illustration posts are done, but we think that the release will be in late June or July.

In accordance with important dates in the books, historically Harry Potter events occur in July. For instance, Harry Potter and JK Rowling’s birthday, the release of films and books, and Pottermore. Also, next year will commemorate 5 years after Deathly Hallows was released, 1 year after the premiere of Deathly Hallows - Part 2 and Pottermore.

But ultimately the most important factor in our theory is that the Pottermore Insider said that the Pottermore Shop would open in the first half of 2012. This could mean the Pottermore team is planning a conjoined launch date for CoS and the shop. So, we want your feedback! Comment, tweet and message!

Pottermore has released another survey today. In a post on the Pottermore Insider, they explained that they released this survey to help them with the Pottermore Shop that will open soon. The questions were mainly about eBooks, eReaders and Harry Potter. You can take the survey here. We have listed all of the questions below. 

Besides from the general questions (age, country, etc.), the survey’s question include:

Which of the Harry Potter books have you read?

Which is your favourite?

Which do you own a printed copy of?

Do you read eBooks?

On what devices do you read eBooks?

Where do you buy the eBooks from?

When the Harry Potter books are available as eBooks, how interested will you be to buy them?

Which Harry Potter books are you interested in buying?

Why will you buy the Harry Potter ebooks?

When the Harry Potter books are available as eBooks, how interested will you be to buy them as a gift?

Which Harry Potter eBooks are you interested in buying as a gift?

When the Harry Potter digital audio books are available as downloads, how interested will you be to buy them?

Which other Harry Potter products have you purchased?

Many people, THOUSANDS of people, have asked this very question since June:

WHEN WILL POTTERMORE OFFICIALLY LAUNCH?!!

And though we would love to say we know the answer, but the fact is, we don’t. Nobody but the people in Devonshire House, 1 Devonshire Street, London W1W 5DR (WE INCLUDED AND BOLDED FOR A REASON!) know the answer. The official launch date has never been discussed, only in posts extending it or announcing another launch date that they later extended. You simply have to accept that fact, and we know you’re tired of waiting. We ALL are tired of waiting for the site to launch! But you have to accept it because that’s what is. It’s not going to change until they announce it, and we will too, right on this site. 

Here are some of the things we know for a fact, and some we are hypothesizing:

• Pottermore BETA was launched the 15th August 2011
• the Pottermore Insider announced on September 28 that all the welcome emails were sent out. This phase went out as planned, even though it was 2 days before they said they would be out (cutting it a little close??).
• The site was originally planned to be opened from October 1, but it was extended until the 31st. Closer to the end of October, they announced that they would once again be extending the beta. There was NO word on when the site would launch.
• We expect the site to launch sometime in the next four (4) months.
• We expect that the Pottermore Shop would open in the next 6 months, as planned. After all, this (e-books) was the main reason for Pottermore; making shopping for e-books better and more creative, and including the information we, as fans, have wanted for years.
• We also predict Chamber of Secrets will be released in 6-12 months. 

Also, for all the Harry Potter fans who cannot read English, French, German, Italian, or Spanish, you are the true heroes. It’s a sad fact that you can’t even use Pottermore. Hopefully, once they officially launch the site, they will start releasing it in other languages.

We know it’s hard… but just remember to…. Keep Calm and Wait On

And for U.S. peeps… Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Shopping!

The Pottermore Insider posted today, and discussed the feedback, beta testing, dueling and more.

Pottermore has decided to extend the beta period until the end of October, so new members will have time to spend on the site. All beta users will be sent a survey in the coming weeks for site feedback. According to the post, all feedback has been very helpful, and they are “tweaking” some parts of the site.

Dueling will be one of those areas that they will be tweaking. They are currently fixing it so that when it opens, it will run smoothly. Our advise to Pottermore: Don’t get your hopes up.

And what about that “15 seconds till refresh” thing? Because Pottermore is a new site, it’s having technical issues. The site itself has gotten over 550 million views (WOW)! In the article, they state that they quickly resolve this problem when it happens, but we’re not seeing anything. It’s slow. We get it.

New information about the Pottermore Shop was also in the post, and that it will be available in the first half of 2012. That’s a long time away from the original October date. How do you feel about this? 

AND NOW FOR THE BIGGY…… Pottermore will be available for everyone to register from the end of October. But bit of surprising news was also revealed, that even when everyone is granted access, you will still have to wait (weeks, months) for your welcome email. 

Read the full article here. It’s worth reading!

What is your opinion on all this news? Tell us in the comments below!