And that reminds me of Andrzej Sapkowski and CD Project Red deal

https://www.polygon.com/2018/10/2/17927916/the-witcher-autho...

> “I was stupid enough to sell them rights to the whole bunch,” Sapkowski said at the time. “They offered me a percentage of their profits. I said, ‘No, there will be no profit at all — give me all my money right now! The whole amount.’ It was stupid. I was stupid enough to leave everything in their hands because I didn’t believe in their success. But who could foresee their success? I couldn’t.”

Do you think he would have returned the lump sum if the game failed and they went broke?

You give up risk when you ask for a lump sum

Why not split the difference? A lump sum and a smaller percentage.

For the author? Since he didnt believe in it, any slice would have been timny. His regret and words would likely be close to the same.

And one could argue that the gamemakers were much more motivated to create a successful product when they started out in the red, but got the keep all of any profits.

CD Projekt Red is a computer game company who created a game based on sapkowski’s books. The games and company did very well.

That's the point. He gave up royalties for a lump sum, when the game seems to currently be the 23rd best-selling game of all time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_gam...

That guy really has bad luck. From the Wikipedia article,

"In the early 1990s, Wayne sold the original Apple partnership contract paper, signed in 1976 by Jobs, Wozniak, and himself, for US$500. In 2011, the contract was sold at auction for $1.6 million.[15] Wayne has stated that he regrets that sale.[5][6][16]"