Atari has announced that it has acquired the rights to the Wizardry RPG series, covering the first five games and the core intellectual property behind those early releases. For fans of old-school dungeon crawling, it is a notable move, as Wizardry helped shape the language of computer RPGs long before the genre became a console mainstay.
The Games Included In The Deal
- Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord, released in 1981
- Wizardry II: The Knight of Diamonds, released in 1982
- Wizardry III: Legacy of Llylgamyn, released in 1983
- Wizardry IV: The Return of Werdna, released in 1987
- Wizardry V: Heart of the Maelstrom, released in 1988
The deal does not cover every numbered Wizardry game. The sixth, seventh, and eighth entries are owned by the Japanese company Drecom, and those later titles are tied to a separate fictional universe. That makes Atari's new rights focused on the earliest era of the series, rather than the full franchise timeline.
Atari CEO Wade Rosen said the company sees Wizardry as a highly influential RPG name, while also noting that many of its games have not been available for more than 20 years. According to Rosen, Atari sees the purchase as a chance to republish the early titles, produce remasters, bring them to consoles, and offer physical editions.
No specific release dates, platforms, or collection details have been confirmed yet, so the practical shape of Atari's plans is still unclear. A package of the first five games would be an obvious wish for many retro RPG players, but for now the announcement mainly sets the stage for what could come next.
Z-retro's view: this is a promising piece of preservation news, especially for a series with such deep RPG roots. The real test will be how carefully Atari presents these older games for modern players while keeping their original character intact.
