Playing M&M 9 reminded me of how much I loved Wizardry 8 and Gold. Any chance we may see these one day or are there restrictions that will prevent that from happening? Thanks.

That all depends on whether the Japanese company who owns the rights to Wizardry will allow for it...

Direct your hate mail here

http://ipm.gamepot.co.jp/index_english.html

Note being a Japanese company the odds of them collaborating with GOG on a DRM free version of their back library should occur some time after our sun goes supernova.

Now that's awfully prejudiced of you.

I know that major Japanese publishers like Nintendo, Sega and Square Enix are renowned for being uptight, ignorant, arrogant, overblown, unoriginal, reclusive wankers, but this one seems a little more smaller scale and may be more open to suggestions.

That is, assuming that someone there DOES speak English. Gamepot's Engrish (*cough*) English site hasn't been updated in a few years.

I shouldn't think they wouldn't say no to making a few bucks in a market that they don't even normally address.

If prejudiced, you mean 'have extensive knowledge and actual experience working with Japanese companies' then yes. Note a couple of things

1) Japanese companies and even consumers have really not gotten on the digital download bandwagon yet. And they're going there kicking and screaming

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-11-01-why-umvc3-is-coming-out-only-9-months-after-mvc3

2) Most Japanese companies are notoriously conservative. You're going to have a hard time convincing them that a game distributor, not based out of Japan (xenophobia is full out over there), can sell your game, and make it DRM free.

Simply put anything is possible, it's just a matter of how likely.

Valve games are very unlikely, but Wizardry games, while still somewhat unlikely due to licensing issues is still a possibility and more likely than Valve or Blizzard games.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizardry

Apparently, they have been working on new spin off releases... in Japan only.

And yes, the Japanese are not good at distribution, but in this particular case, I blame the non-Japanese mofos who sold them the rights in the first place (knowing full well what would most likely happen to it).

It's bad enough that we have to contend with Japanese-made content being unavailable, but it's twice as bad if we sell them the rights to content made elsewhere so that they can make that unavailable as well.

There are plenty of Japanese made cartoons that I saw as a kid that I never found anywhere again (except maybe a VHS copy for crazy prices on Ebay) and I know plenty of people that are in a similar situation concerning Japanese cartoons that they saw as a kid.

In short, they don't like making money off their products. They are more likely than not to just can significant cultural content in the long term.

This situation is not all that dissimilar to Europe, only here in Europe the companies HAVE got on the bandwagon, and they're trying to shove it down our throats.

I think Japanese consumers are a lot like European consumers in that they don't consider games to be a throwaway commodity. There's a much more marked attitude towards buying a game and keeping it in the long term. Look at Amazon or any retail store, and you'll see that retail PC gaming is alive and well, whereas in the States, it's hard as hell to get anything on disc these days apart from a few core titles sold online.

I dismiss any notion that DD will replace physical media. Instead, I see it as a complement. I love GOG because it provides me with those games that would otherwise cost an arm or a leg to buy secondhand off eBay. I use Steam on the odd occasion for very cheap triple-A titles and indie games. But when it comes to buying recent major titles that I want for 20, 30, 40, 50 euros, then I want something for my money.

According to the RPG Codex it is part of a plan to buy up the best of the western RPG's and keep them out of the market in the west. Apparently so Japanese RPG's can dominate the market.

Is that a serious theory on their part or something silly?

Didn't gamestop own the rights to Wiz 8 or was that just to publish it in the U.S. at the time of release? I guess the best I can hope for at the moment is to find it cheap at a flea market.

they have released a decidely Japanese version of an RPG named Wizardy something or other for the iPhone/IPad market, here in the US.

Beakie

Note: just briefly saw while browseing the App Store the other day.

*bolding mine

It's actually Gamepot I believe, not Gamestop, to own the current rights of Wizardry.

EDIT: the site linked may be outdated. Wizardry online seems to be published by Gamepot
I may have misunderstood the Gamestop reference, did you meant the US gaming shop chain?
AFAIK Wiz8 was owned and published by SirTech or SirTech Canada, at the time. I may be wrong though, wouldn't be a first


And yes, there have been loads of official Wizardry games released in Japan in these years