Atari didn't actually buy the whole Wizardry franchise

Japanese publisher Drecom has clarified that it still owns the global trademark rights to the Wizardry franchise. This corrects widespread reports that Atari acquired the entire property. I recently reported that Atari acquired the Wizardry IP. That was due to a poorly worded and misunderstood statement from Atari. Drecom has now set the record straight.

Atari did not buy the trademark from Drecom. Instead, Atari acquired the rights to the first five games in the series directly from the original rights holders. Drecom has no intention of selling its domestic or international trademark rights and will continue managing the brand.

The paperwork is the real dungeon

Trying to untangle video game copyright law is usually less fun than stepping on a poison trap with no antidote. The Wizardry franchise has one of the most complicated legal histories in the industry. Sir-Tech launched the series in 1981 with Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord. It basically defined the first-person grid-based dungeon crawler. The main series ran through Wizardry 8 in 2001.

After Sir-Tech closed its doors, the property fractured. The copyrights for the code and the trademark for the name ended up in different hands. The series went dormant in the West. In Japan, it exploded. Local developers created dozens of spin-offs. Games like Tale of the Forsaken Land and the Empire series kept the mechanics alive for decades. The rights were scattered across different companies. This made official re-releases of the original games nearly impossible for a long time.

Five games for Atari

Atari's purchase covers the copyrights to games one through five. This includes Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord (1981), Knight of Diamonds (1982), Legacy of Llylgamyn (1983), The Return of Werdna (1987), and Heart of the Maelstrom (1988). These games were foundational to the RPG genre. They heavily influenced the creators of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest.

This clears the way for Atari to publish ports or remakes of those Apple II and DOS classics. Now, Atari owns that original code outright.

Drecom keeps the name

Drecom holds the domestic and international trademarks for Wizardry. They have been greenlighting new projects. The Wizardry brand carries massive weight in the Japanese market. Drecom also licenses the IP for merchandise and light novels.

When Atari announced its acquisition, it sounded like Drecom had sold the farm. They did not.

The situation is now clear. Atari controls the code and assets for the foundational 1980s entries. Drecom controls the Wizardry name itself and the broader brand. If you want to play the original maze that started it all, Atari has you covered. If you want a new game with the Wizardry logo on the box, that goes through Drecom.