Master of Magic is a beloved classic for old-time strategy games ever.  It had a game design that has not been equaled to (imo) since in many respects.

So why hasn’t anyone made a Master of Magic 2 or a remake of it? The answer is that the rights to this game are a tangled web.

Our story begins in 1994.  Master of Magic was designed by Steve Barcia, one of the greatest game designers in our industry’s history. That is not something I say lightly. At his level of game design, you’re not talking about skill, you’re talking about some sort of divine gift.  I’ve only met a handful of people that fall into that category on game design (needless to say, I am not in that category).

His company, Simtex, developed Master of Magic and it was published by  Microprose.  Microprose was acquired by Hasbro Interactive in 1997.  While Microprose had the publishing rights to Master of Magic, it is unclear what their rights were beyond that.  In 1999, Hasbro shut down Microprose sold its assets to the French company Infogrames which was subsequently branded as Atari (a wholly owned subsidiary of Infogrames).

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).

But it’s not clear who, if anyone, has the legal right to make a Master of Magic game that can lay claim to the original game except for perhaps, Steve Barcia and that’s just my speculation.

What I can say is that anyone hoping that Atari’s upcoming bankruptcy auction will result in someone “bidding” on the Master of Magic rights can stop wondering now. At this stage, it doesn’t appear that’s an option.