Classic RPG series Wizardry is becoming a blockchain abomination

Adventurers in a Wizardry blockchain game.

(Image credit: Drecom)

Wizardry is a foundational videogame RPG, one of the first and best to adapt various principles of Dungeons & Dragons and an influence on pretty much everything that came afterwards. The first entry had the incredibly good name Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord, and was released in 1981 by Sir-Tech, with the last game in what's considered the original series released in 2001 (Wizardry 8). Ever since, Wizardry has been focused on the Japanese market (where it found big success) and mostly mobile titles (though there was an MMO).

Well… the Wizardry IP is now owned by Tokyo-based Drecom, which has announced that "the timeless masterpiece will become a blockchain game!" Yay. The new game is called Eternal Crypt: Wizardry BC and is described as "an adaptation of the Wizardry IP as a blockchain game. It will be a game that everyone can enjoy and immerse themselves in the world of Web3".

Yes, it incorporates NFTs. Yes, they're planning some sort of pre-launch NFT sale of items you'll be able to use in the game. Yes, it is looking "for a wide range of IP and NFT projects to collaborate" with. Oh and, yes, it's being published by Zeal Nova DMCC, some sort of Web3 shell company from the UAE.

Any details on the game? No. What do you think this is, some sort of entertainment product?!?

The press release really did a great job at getting my temple vein throbbing. Try this one on for size: "One of our missions for this project is to solve the current problems of tokenomics in blockchain games and to achieve sustainable tokenomics". Sustainable tokenomics! My lol eclipses the sun.

Eternal Crypt: Wizardry BC will be released across Asia, Europe and North America. If you're a glutton for punishment you can check out the official website, which proclaims that "Wizardry, the origin of RPGs, is now unleashed with adventurers inscribed on the blockchain". It's a sad fate for a series that was once genuinely important and influential, and that inscription feels more fitting for a gravestone.

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."