Comment by protocolture

>Are their hands tied by legal or what other factors are preventing this?

Nightdive studios has a few blog posts regarding this.

The problem apparently is that a lot of retro game IP changed hands when records were physical.

So Nightdive goes to Company A and says "Hey do you have the rights to <Game> or did you sell them"?

Company A says "You can pay us 50,000 dollars to check our records we are not sure."

Nightdive says "Ok, seeing as you dont know if you own the game, could you give us permission just in case you do"

Company A: "No, we would need to review the records. However if you released the game to market, we would check just to see if we can sue"

Nightdive has an identical conversation with Company B, who may have bought the rights from Company A but only have archival records.

Nightdive walks away from the project.