(The Guardian)

 A cabal of brawling virtual wizards has overwhelmed JK Rowling’s Pottermore, forcing the website to temporarily remove a popular dueling game and pushing the launch of the Harry Potter ebooks back until the first half of 2012.

The much-anticipated launch of the Harry Potter ebooks was initially scheduled for October 2011, when the interactive Pottermore website was set to open up to general use. But the one million beta users of the site have been “incredibly active, interacting with the site far more intensely and frequently than we thought they would”, according to officials, with 550m page views already chalked up since it opened in August. The Wizard’s Duel feature has proved to be “even more popular than … anticipated”, and has been withdrawn until it can “cope with the large number of users we expect”.

As a result, Potter’s debut in the digital book arena has been delayed until the first half of 2012, while general access to Pottermore will be in phases from the end of October.

Delaying the ebooks and digital audiobooks launch will, said Pottermore, “allow us to focus on our first priority: opening Pottermore to as many people as possible and making the experience as good as it can be”.

This hold-up meant that Harry Potter ebooks were not available for the holiday season, but the Bookseller’s Charlotte Williams, a registered Pottermore user, said this was unlikely to dent their popularity.

“Potter fans are so loyal, and it seems they have engaged with Pottermore even more than Rowling and co were anticipating, so I don’t think there will be major financial implications to delaying the launch of the ebook store,” she said. “Honestly, Potter is such a big brand, it is never far from readers’ minds. A delayed launch may even mean a greater second wave of excitement about the ebooks becoming available as the anticipation builds up over a longer period of time.”