Stoic proceeding with The Banner Saga 2

Stoic will continue to work on the sequel to The Banner Saga, despite the trademark claim made by King over its use of the word "Saga."

In a post on the studio's Facebook page, co-founders Arne Jorgensen, Alex Thomas and John Watson thanked the community for their support since The Banner Saga launched in January - a post that contained none-too-subtle hints about their feelings regarding King's trademark dispute.

"We've already put out the first patch fixing issues reported by players about bugs and balance, and after a short hiatus we'll be coming back to work on the next game in the trilogy," the post read. "If there's one complaint we've heard over and over, it's that the story isn't done.

Stoic claimed that the popularity of The Banner Saga has far exceeded their expectations, reaching further than the niche audience it had expected.

"Aside from the relief that comes with knowing that we'll be able to keep working at Stoic for a long time to come, what has been really rewarding is the individuals who write to us saying things like, 'No game has ever been more worthy of the title 'Saga'. A saga is something epic, something that will linger in the minds and memories of people for years to come."

Of course, the name "Saga" is exactly the issue for King, which has claimed that The Banner Saga could be confused for its own line of products - which include Bubble Witch Saga and the hugely popular Candy Crush Saga.

However, following a huge outcry from the press and the development community, King was forced to clarify its position. Indeed, King argued that it had no concern about the possibility of confusion between its candy-focused puzzle game and Stoic's Norse saga strategy title. Rather, it was ensuring its ability to protect its trademarks against threats in the future.

"Like any prudent company, we need to take all appropriate steps to protect our IP, both now and in the future," the company said at the time.

"If we had not opposed Banner Saga's trade mark application, it would be much easier for real copy cats to argue that their use of 'Saga' was legitimate. This is an important issue for King because we already have a series of games where 'Saga' is key to the brand which our players associate with a King game; Candy Crush Saga, Bubble Witch Saga, Pet Rescue Saga, Farm Heroes Saga and so on. All of these titles have already faced substantive trademark and copyright issues with clones."