Atari's new deal promises re-releases, remakes, and multimedia spinoffs

Image credit: Atari/Digital Eclipse

Foundational RPG series Wizardry has, over forty years since helping to codify the roleplaying videogame, found itself torn between present-day custodians. Atari announced yesterday that they’d acquired the rights to the first five Wizardry games, as well as "their underlying IP," and said they’d be re-releasing those five on modern platforms. This morning, however, Japanese publishers Drecom – who bought Wizardry’s copyright and trademark rights in 2020 – tXeeted that contrary to certain reports on Atari’s acquisition, it was they who’d continue to own and manage the intellectual property in the future.

This initially appears to be a simple if unusual split, with Atari owning the rights to the first five Wizardry RPGs (including the very first, Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord , a remake of which Atari co-published in 2024), while Drecom keep hold of the remaining three mainline games…