Just curious - does anyone know for certain to begin with that the employees of Stern are compensated via a royalty structure? Or is this just speculation/assumption?

Most companies that produce technology like this would never have such a deal. Basically everyone wants a "work for hire" model and in some cases they will offer large bonuses for sales and things but would not have a contract in which future production could be held up or hindered by royalties to anyone other than the owner of the Ghostbusters IP itself.

I'm just curious if this is all speculation or if people here know for sure whether some of the "better known" game designers have negotiated extra special deals in their employment contracts.

Also - people can say "never gonna happen" all they want. Stern runs a business. If there is demand and profit to be made in another run (and if they can secure the license rights from the Ghostbusters IP owner) they will do it some day.

Anecdotally my opinion is that there are many games ahead of Ghostbusters which would have more demand for Stern... but there is a lot of insider information no one on here has. For example, if Stern has 99% of the parts needed for Ghostbusters in a warehouse it might make sense to kick off 500 machines when the assembly line is otherwise slow.