Brad Wardell, president of Stardock, has coveted the Master of Magic IP for years, having made an agreement to make a sequel that fell through due to legal complications.
According to Wardell, ”In the early 2000s, Atari (USA) approached us about relaunching some these franchises. This was post-Master of Orion 3. The idea was to bring back Star Control, Master of Orion and Master of Magic. The plan ultimately bogged down due to the complex legal relationships in place at the time, particularly around Master of Magic.
Now, fast forward to 2013. Who has the rights to Master of Magic? I don’t know. Atari doesn’t seem to think they do beyond their original publishing agreement for the DOS game from 1994. The trademark for Master of Magic expired some years ago and Nival (makers of King Bounty) registered the trademark with an intent to use (so we might end of with a game with that name at some point in the future).”
It seems strange that no one quite knows who owns the rights, not even Nival, since the company owns the trademark, not the game itself.
