Terminology Stern used when they took a game that was long out of production - and did a re-run.

Stern usually has a catalog of games they can decide to run in batches... based on demand they will run games from that catalogto fill orders or fill presumed demand. But eventually a game is 'retired' and is taken out of the production catalog.

Vault is when they go back to an older game and decide to re-run it. In past examples, they have often added minor improvements/modernization as well.

Stern blurred the lines a bit recently with Star Trek.. which really wasn't that far out of production and decided to run more.

I think the answer is in the middle... I believe they can get bonuses/payments based on how well a game sells. Stern may be savvy enough to limit such things to the first run or time.. So not really royalties as much as simple performance bonuses that can be scoped down - not that the person has any ownership or residual rights to the property in perpetuity.