Join The Club
Update: There seems to be some confusion about what's actually happening here. While Atari's announcement states specifically that it has acquired "the first five Wizardry games and their underlying IP," Japanese publisher Drecom said in a response that it owns the trademark rights to the Wizardry IP :in Japan and overseas," and has "no intention of selling" them.
"The company was recently informed that Atari has acquired the rights to the first through fifth instalments of the Wizardry series from the original rightsholder," Drecom said. "The company will continue to hold the Japan and overseas trademark rights to the Wizardry series and manage the Wizardry IP brand."
What this seems to come down to is nuance and complexity in IP and trademark law, which is best understood and sorted out by lawyers who specialize in the field. This is reflected in Atari's statement to PC Gamer, in which it reiterated its initial announcement: "Atari has acquired the full rights to the first five Wizardry games and the underlying IP behind them, which are considered to be the formative Wizardry titles and universe with which most fans are familiar. Drecom owns the Wizardry trademark. Atari collaborated with Drecom on our remake of Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord."
"The underlying IP is the collective Llylgamyn universe in which the first five games take place. This includes unique expressions and continuously named characters such as Werdna and Trebor, a constructed and unique spell language, the town of Llylgamyn itself, iconic items, distinctive and continuous monsters like the Creeping Coin, and unique components like the resurrection mechanic," the Atari rep went on to explain. "All of these components are distinctive of the first five games and are incorporated into the IP which Atari now owns. This is wholly distinguished from the trademark, which is simply the word 'Wizardry.'
"The original Wizardry 1-5 and the later Wizardry 6-8 are distinct universes with different underlying rights ownership. So, while Drecom may own the Wizardry trademark and certain later-series rights, many of the characters, settings, lore elements, and other expressive components most closely associated by consumers with the original Wizardry games are separately owned by Atari."
We'll keep an eye on things and let you know if the trademark lawyers start throwing hands.
Original story:
The earliest Wizardry games varied a lot depending on the platform: DOS and Commodore 64 versions were as described, but the Nintendo ports were graphically much more vivid, with evocative fantasy pixel art. What unites the first five Wizardry games, no matter the platform, is that they're mostly unavailable to play in 2026, save a remake of Proving Grounds handled by Digital Eclipse and released in 2024.
But it looks like that's about to change: Atari has announced it's acquired "the complete and exclusive rights" to the first five Wizardry games and their "underlying IP". That's pretty big news for CRPG enthusiasts, especially since Atari seems pretty eager to get them back on the market. The announcement cites the possibility of "remasters, collections and new releases" as well as a bunch of other non-game stuff like merch, cards, board games, books, comics, TV and film projects.
It's worth pointing out that most of the Wizardry games currently on Steam, while bearing the same Wizardry name, belong to a different strain of the series. Wizardry was massive in Japan and proved influential on the then-germinating JRPG. Japanese publisher Drecom owns the rights to Wizardry 6 through to 8, but it has also published or licensed the IP to various others, including Acquire, who released Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls in 2020. The most recent Drecom-associated Wizardry was Variants Daphne, which is basically a gacha-fied take on the series (Drecom has a lot of experience in this field).
So the most recent Wizardry games tend to have some fairly overt anime styling, at least where character design is concerned. That's OK, but that's unlikely to be the case with Atari's take on the first five games, and it'll be interesting to see them exist at the same time. How much Wizardry is too much Wizardry? Well, finish the remake of Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord without having a nervous breakdown, and then get back to me.
“Wizardry is such an influential RPG franchise, yet many of the games have been unavailable for more than two decades,” Atari CEO Wade Rosen said. “We are excited to have this rare opportunity to republish, remaster and bring console ports and physical releases of these early games to market.”
It's a pretty wise time to bring back the Wizardry series. Blobbers are having a bit of a comeback, and I'm not even talking about Legend of Grimrock which is basically ancient at this point. Some recent highlights include Legends of Amberland, Dragon Ruins, and Cyclopean: The Great Abyss.
