Why did the licensing rights to NOLF get so tangled up?

So for those who don’t recall the story behind the game, around 10 years ago, the game was hyped up by Nightdive Studios for a remaster as the game was going to have achievements and better looking graphics.

But then the most heartbreaking announcement suddenly came as the studio was forced to pull the plug on the HD version of the game as apparently the licensing rights to the game were so tangled up because it wasn’t clear just who owned the rights to the original game itself, and I wanted to know why this happens in gaming sometimes.