Atari has acquired the complete and exclusive rights to the first five games in the landmark Wizardry role-playing franchise, expanding the gaming company’s push to revive classic intellectual property through remasters, new releases and cross-media entertainment projects.

The deal covers the original “Llylgamyn Saga” titles, including 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). Atari said the acquisition also includes related intellectual property, contract rights and additional Wizardry-related video games.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The move gives Atari control over one of the foundational franchises in computer role-playing game history. The original Wizardry series helped shape early RPG mechanics and heavily influenced the development of Japanese role-playing games, including many of the genre’s most commercially successful franchises.

According to Atari, the underlying Wizardry intellectual property — including characters, spells, monsters and fictional locations tied to the original games — has largely remained inaccessible to developers and fans for more than 25 years.

The company plans to reintroduce the games through expanded digital distribution, physical editions, remastered releases and console ports. Atari also said it intends to build a broader entertainment franchise around the classic series through merchandise, tabletop games, comics, books and potential television and film adaptations.

The acquisition aligns with Atari’s broader strategy of revitalizing retro gaming brands with modern updates while leveraging nostalgia-driven demand among longtime players and collectors. In recent years, the company has increasingly focused on preserving classic gaming properties through its publishing labels and studio network, including subsidiaries such as Digital Eclipse and Nightdive Studios.

“Wizardry is such an influential RPG franchise, yet many of the games have been unavailable for more than two decades,” said Wade Rosen, Atari’s chairman and chief executive officer. “We are excited to have this rare opportunity to republish, remaster and bring console ports and physical releases of these early games to market.”

The company’s renewed focus on the franchise gained momentum in 2024 when Digital Eclipse released a remake of Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord. The updated version preserved the structure of the original Apple II release while layering modern graphics and quality-of-life improvements onto the largely text-based gameplay experience.

The remake introduced the franchise to a new generation of players and received praise from longtime fans of classic dungeon-crawling RPGs. Atari noted that the game’s original score later received a Grammy Award.

Robert Woodhead, who co-created the original Wizardry franchise alongside Andrew Greenberg, said the acquisition could expose the influential series to younger audiences unfamiliar with early computer role-playing games.

“When Andrew Greenberg and I created Wizardry back in the 1980s, the video game industry was still in its infancy, and the original games were some of the first to bring the role-playing experience to PCs and consoles,” Woodhead said. “As Atari continues to reintroduce the games on new platforms and to new audiences, I’ll definitely be paying attention to the reactions of gamers who decide to take on a real old-school challenge.”

The acquisition does not include Wizardry titles six through eight, which are owned by Japanese publisher Drecom and are based on a separate fictional universe.

Founded in the 1970s, Atari remains one of the most recognizable brands in the gaming industry, with a portfolio that includes franchises such as Pong, Asteroids, Centipede and RollerCoaster Tycoon. The company has increasingly positioned itself as both a game publisher and steward of classic gaming intellectual property, targeting retro gaming enthusiasts alongside newer audiences discovering legacy titles through modern platforms.