Atari has recently acquired the rights to several titles in the old-school RPG series Wizardry. In gaming’s earliest days, Atari was the landmark video game console manufacturer, translating its success in the arcade market from games like Pong and Asteroids to the home console space. The Atari 2600 defined the early days of video gaming, becoming so dominant that the Atari name became synonymous with the medium as a whole.
Unfortunately, thanks to a series of poor financial decisions, Atari contributed heavily to the 1983 crash of the video game market. While the publisher tried to create more systems, it exited the console business in the late 1990s following the failure of the Atari Jaguar. Atari has since frequently changed hands and gone through difficult financial periods, but the brand has bounced back in recent years by emphasizing retro re-releases and game preservation. Atari has acquired a bevy of old-school IPs as of late, bringing classic titles back on modern platforms for a new audience of gamers.
Atari Just Acquired the Rights to 5 Ubisoft Franchises
New reports indicate that Atari is acquiring the rights to 5 Ubisoft franchises, giving gamers hope that they can be revived in the future.
Atari Acquires First Five Wizardry Games, Promises Remasters
Atari has acquired the rights to the first five entries in the RPG franchise Wizardry, all of which were originally released in the 1980s. The publisher has also announced its intention to remaster these titles, several of which have not been officially available for several decades. In Atari’s official statement regarding the acquisition, the publisher revealed plans to port these titles to consoles and offer physical releases, though it stopped short of mentioning specific platforms.
This would not be the first time Atari has had a hand in the Wizardry franchise, as its subsidiary Digital Eclipse previously released a 3D remake of Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord, the franchise’s inaugural entry, in 2024. It’s worth pointing out that Atari does not own the rights to the entire Wizardry franchise, as Japanese publisher Drecom still holds the rights to the sixth, seventh, and eighth entries in the series, which take place in a different fictional universe than the first five titles. Thus, any future remakes or re-releases of the Wizardry franchise under Atari’s watch will not include those latter titles.
Atari’s acquisition of the first five Wizardry titles is exciting news for fans of classic RPG games. The original Wizardry game was a groundbreaking PC title upon its release in 1981, serving as one of the earliest Dungeons and Dragons-esque RPGs for computers, and the first party-based RPG. While the franchise may be rather niche today, its influence continued to shine through Japanese-developed games such as Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Fire Emblem, and Shin Megami Tensei.
Who’s That Character?
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
The acquisition of the first five Wizardry titles adds even more to an ever-growing library of acquisitions in Atari’s portfolio. Atari has helped revitalize old-school games with the help of developers Nightdive Studios and Digital Eclipse, and it looks to continue that success with its recent acquisition of Implicit Conversions. With the classic Wizardry titles now in its hands, Atari should leverage its retro-based development teams to help create faithful remasters of these landmark RPG titles.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 75/100 Critics Rec: 78%
- Released
- September 15, 2023
- ESRB
- t
- Developer(s)
- Digital Eclipse
- Publisher(s)
- Digital Eclipse
WHERE TO PLAY
- Genre(s)
- RPG
