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Atari has announced that it has acquired the rights to the original five Wizardry titles in the classic RPG series.
To be more specific, these five 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 sixth, seventh, and eighth entries are owned by Japanese company Drecom and are based on a completely different fictional universe. Drecom has provided a statement to confirm that it holds the Japan and overseas trademark rights to the series and will continue to manage the IP brand.
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Atari has indicated it plans to re-release all five games in the acquisition via remasters, collections, physical products, and whatever the hell else it thinks might be worthwhile. Digital Eclipse, the remaster specialist owned by Atari, has already worked on a full remake of Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord, overlaying the original game with completely revamped visuals on Switch.
Here's what Atari CEO Wade Rosen had to say:
“Wizardry is such an influential RPG franchise, yet many of the games have been unavailable for more than two decades. We are excited to have this rare opportunity to republish, remaster and bring console ports and physical releases of these early games to market.”
Pretty exciting news for RPG fans, then! We'll keep an eye out for further updates in the coming months and be sure to let you know of any titles heading to the Switch and/or Switch 2.