I can see that the most common question here (besides "why no Linux version?") tends to be why do game "X" is not on GOG. These titles tend to be owned by several parties that will not let go even though they don't profit from it in anyway.

For me , the worst case is with Legacy of Kain Blood Omen. Silicon Knight will not republish this game out of pure spite. Like it's not even a case of money, they are just huge di$ks about it.

Anybody knows about any worse situations?

Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday?
Or the Dungeon Master series.

I don't know if is worse, but gives me some nerves knowing that Saint's row 3 and 4 have linux version on steam and not here.

Nocturne - no one knows who currently holds the rights to that since the dev company who used to hold the rights went bankrupt. Although they could have re-released on GOG and/or Steam in the many years before they went bankrupt, yet they didn't for some unknown reason.

And as I was making this post, I found an article from 2018 that said the same dev company was suing Microsoft in 2018, even though they reportedly went bankrupt in 2013. I thought they ceased to exist when they went bankrupt, so I have no idea how they were able to sue Microsoft if they no longer exist(ed) at the time when they did so.

So maybe they still have rights to Nocturne after all, despite being bankrupt and not existing any more, whilst also still existing at the same time (?!).

That's not the case at all. Silicon Knights will not republish the game for 2 reasons:
1) they don't own it any more (since the lawsuit involving Crystal Dynamics)
2) they don't exist any more as a company
You can buy BO1 for Playstation on PSN (but not in all regions), the problems are with PC version and companies involved, which involve Activision and Rockstar on top of Silicon Knights, Crystal Dynamics (and later Eidos and Square Enix) and Semi Logic Entertainments. Schrödinger's cat's syndrome? ;-)

From the games not mentioned yet No One Lives Forever is an obvious example, where no one seems to know who owns what. Generally Monolith games seem to have problems with copyright. Aliens vs Predator 2 and Captain Claw also have similar issues.

I was just about to post a similar thread. What synchronicity!

While this isn't worse than the scenario you detailed -- and the license has simply been lost over time (not in limbo) -- but the reason I was going to post was...

Battle for Middle Earth II

Earlier today I watched some gameplay and I was hooked! Where could I find this game!? Oh... nowhere (unless I find an over-priced physical copy online). As one of the 80 games chosen for the traveling "Video Games as Art" exhibit, it's too bad the game is effectively unavailable.

NOLF is the biggest one for me. No one is sure who owns it and no one wants to pay lawyers to figure it out.

Wolfenstein 2009 was mentioned earlier today, a game Activision paid Raven to make but the rights now lie with Bethesda, causing what one assumes is a clusterf**k no one wants to deal with.

I never thought Blade Runner would come here though, so... who knows. There's always hope. In the meantime, not to be too blunt, there are plenty of ways to find backup copies.

The classic Battletech and Mechwarrior games are the big ones because of the hang-ups having to do with the unauthorized use of Japanese mech designs. It would probably take some doing to get it sorted out.

https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Unseen

you know whats weird to me, if no one knows who owns it then couldn't someone release it? how would they get in trouble? doesn't Microsoft own Mechwarrior?

I think the prevailing theory has been that if someone were to try it, the people with the rights would pop out of thin air to try and shut it down. Nightdive joked about trying something similar with NOLF but I don't think they truly want to risk wasting time and any amount of funds toward experimenting just to see who files a claim.

hmm this seems bizarre. like if there is someone out there why wouldn't they want money and also put the game out there. if they have an ip then mine as well put it to use.

No disagreement there.

This has been talked about quite a bit with various games. Some people, like previously mentioned, believe that more than one person or entity holds rights to some of them. Others have speculated that companies hold rights on some of them that have no interest in reviving them or putting effort behind selling them again. In the case of the first, it's also believed that said companies don't want to part with the properties or even license the rights for any sane amount of money or, rather, an amount someone with the drive to do something with them believes that they're worth.

An opposite end to this discussion is Interplay. They tried to sell off a number of their IPs, some of which I think were purchased while others just kind of... sat there. News outlets covered it but then it just seemed to evaporate as quickly as it surfaced.

It can get weirder like in the starcon fiasco. Where one party owned the characters but another party owned the game title. So, one couldn't publish the game because it had the other's characters in it and the other couldn't label their games starcon. I'm sure copyright's original intent was noble but really in today's time it's just a giant cluster.

There's a website dedicated to providing free copies of NOLF and NOLF 2 updated to work on Windows 10 in widescreen and no one's tried taking it down. I mean maybe it's hosted in Iceland or something, I don't know, but to me it seems like the games are just there and no one cares. Sometimes it's just not worth the money to figure it out or risk getting sued.

Don't know if the situation is worse; but Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K.2 is surely stuck in copyright hell.