Stoic commits to making more 'Saga' games despite King's opposition

Stoic Games has published a brief statement on its website confirming its resolve to continue making games that have words like "Saga" in the title, including a sequel to its recent Viking-themed tactical RPG The Banner Saga. The statement is pretty succinct, but here's the heart of it: "We’re making another one. We won’t make a viking saga without the word Saga, and we don’t appreciate anyone telling us we can’t. King.com claims they’re not attempting to prevent us from using The Banner Saga, and yet their legal opposition to our trademark filing remains." It's a brief, bold response to King's opposition to Stoic's attempt to trademark The Banner Saga. King opposed the trademark because "registration of the term The Banner Saga by Applicant [Stoic] is likely to cause confusion, mistake, or deception that Applicant's goods are those of Opposer [King]," according to King's official Notice of Opposition. King attempted to trademark the word "Saga" in 2011, but is currently delayed from doing so due a technicality -- King is headquartered overseas and thus is required to file extra paperwork when applying for trademark in the U.S., paperwork which it failed to submit. You can read more details in the updates to our story about King's attempt to trademark the term "Candy", including the statement from a King representative who claims the company has no interest in forcing Stoic to change the name of The Banner Saga. To wit, "King has not and is not trying to stop The Banner Saga from using its name. We do not have any concerns that The Banner Saga is trying build on our brand or our content."