Stardock tried to do a deal to let them make an official MoM2, but the corp twits that own the brand insisted on too much control over the project.

As far as studying MoM, that was always going on and apparently has gained emphasis for the FE project. Check Derek's recent dev journal on FE magic. He links to a draft PDF with a significantly stronger collection of spells than WoM has, along with spells that can only be gained via quests and other interesting additions.

They tried to buy the rights to the game. The code would be old and not useful today. I am a programmer myself although that doesnt make me an expert in all code

I would be extremely surprised if the could use the code for much. MOM was a great game, but rather simplistic in many ways by todays standards. There were no advanced AI to copy or super economic formulas in this game.

If they would remake the game (like Sid Meiers Pirates) to be almost an excact copy, they would still rewrite all the code. They would have better modability, flexibility, performance and so on.

Speaking as a professional software developer... yeah that code is pretty much useless. It's an old DOS game. There's no reason to look at the code. If they wanted to glean value out of MoM, they'd need information on how the systems work and are balanced. You don't need a line of code for that.

It might be more accurate to say that the code would not translate into anything useful by today's gaming standards.  Or to put it another way, overhauling the code to make it into a game that is marketable today would be more work than creating something new and hence "useless". 

I am a programmer and deal with a lot of legacy code in my job.  The older the code and the more complex, the more likely it is simply more efficient to recode it.

In any event, since Stardock didn't purchase the code, the point is moot.  Way to go Atari. 

Honestly just rip it off. There are so many potential buyers for a good MoM style game the law suit will pay for itself. Basic Girls Gone Wild Strategy.

Just look at what Starcraft did to Space Marines...  

Atari sucks. Maybe they'll make MoM2 as a FPS ala X-COM Abomination by 2K  Games.

The last good game ATARI put out was M.U.L.E. 

From a lover of MoM and just from a logical view point, if something worked and a lot of people liked it - why not make a sequel. I mean, I understand that they didn't get the rights to so they can't legally.

Yes but being here this long, I have heard the devs say that the game will be many things. One of them was MoM. One of them was RTS tactical battles and TBS strategic map. One of them was Avatar based magic combat. This project has gone in many directions since its inception, regardless of what rights were attempted to be purchased. I, for example, am a MoM fan. I too liked that game, but if I had my own development company I would want to fix the aspects I didn't like to the point where it would be unrecognizable. The devs have their vision of what game they want to make. It doesn't seem that MoM is a very big influence at this point. Just look at the spells. 

So did planescape: torment, u2's first album and the paintings of van gogh.

Having now played it, more than anything i miss the atmosphere of MoM. You took it seriously because it took itself seriously. Stardock usually have the tongue a little too far in the cheek for me.

Heh. I lurked on their pre-release forums for years. I played the game for weeks, and most of that was banging my head against the wall in denial.

I was a MOO3 junkie as well, until the game was released. Biggest disappointment ever. I really tried to like it.... On par with the new Star Wars movies. There is no excuse fore those....