What happens to game IPs from companies that no longer exist? For example, a game series from a studio that closed in the 2000s. Can another studio take over that IP and relaunch the game, or is the game forever in the limbo?

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There's usually somebody who owns that IP. When a company goes bankrupt and shuts down, the company goes into the bankruptcy liquidation. The court appoints a trustee that's put in charge of selling off all of the company's assets to pay off as much of the company's debts as possible. This means physical things like office furniture, computers, kitchen equipment, unsold inventory, etc. and it also means virtual things like intellectual property and technology rights. At a bankruptcy liquidation auction, other parties sometimes can (and do) buy up these IP rights because they can often be had for a fairly low price.

You can actually look up who owns a copyright in real time on the [US Copyright Office Public Records Search page] and finding the Claimant (current owner).

I should also note that abandonware (i.e. software that publishers have stopped selling and supporting) lives in a legal grey area that is still actionable. Engaging with it for personal use probably won't put you in legal hot water, but trying to build and sell it commercially likely will. IP law still applies, even if the IP is currently fallow.

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