Atari Acquires Rights to the First Five Wizardry Titles
Atari just acquired rights to the first five Wizardry RPG titles, including related intellectual property from the original rights holders.
According to a statement published May 6 by Businesswire, Atari announced that it acquired the complete and exclusive rights to the first five games, including their underlying IP. The games include Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord (1981), Wizardry II: The Knight of Diamonds (1982), Wizardry III: Legacy of Llylgamyn (1983), Wizardry IV: The Return of Werdna (1987), and Wizardry V: Heart of the Maelstrom (1988).
The Wizardry RPG titles became one of the most influential role-playing games of their era. The franchise quickly expanded throughout the 1980s after it launched in 1981, which helped shape the RPG genre alongside other classic titles like Ultima and Might and Magic.
The remaining three entries in the broader Wizardry franchise are owned by Japanese publisher Drecom and focus on different characters, settings, and storylines.
According to the press release, Atari plans to bring these “genre-defining games back to the market through expanded digital and physical distribution and the creation of remasters, collections, and new releases.”
“When Andrew Greenberg and I created Wizardry back in the 1980s, the video game industry was still in its infancy, and the original games were some of the first to bring the role-playing experience to PCs and consoles,” Said Robert Woodhead, co-creator of the Wizardry franchise.
“As Atari continues to reintroduce the games on new platforms and to new audiences, I’ll definitely be paying attention to the reaction so gamers who decide to take on a real old-school challenge.”
The CEO and Chairman of Atari expressed his excitement about bringing back the classic titles. “We are excited to have this rare opportunity to republish, remaster and bring console ports and physical releases of these early games to market.”
The original Wizardry was a first-person dungeon crawler that earned a reputation for its punishing difficulty and deep party-building systems.
Over time, the series became a major inspiration for countless RPGs released throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Fans already got a taste of the franchise’s revival thanks to Digital Eclipse’s 2024 remake of Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord, which introduced upgraded visuals and modern gameplay improvements while staying faithful to the original experience.
