Wishbone: Not digital ones, I think ;-)
Well, no. A lot of these games were
made by now defunct companies. The companies which own them now are very much functional.
When a company goes under, or is bought by another company, it's IP doesn't just disappear into thin air. The rights to the various IPs are taken over by the new parent company, or auctioned off to the highest bidder, or in a very few cases may revert to the original creators.
turbomoses: That's what I meant.
People who made the game never really get any of our money. When they get it it is only for the first few months (probably not more than a year but i would assume its only when a big big dev like bioware signs a contract) of sales. and then only few people of dozens who worked on the game will get a cut.
its all about how contracts are written but... I am pretty certain that any purchase of a game older than one year will result with zero of your money going to the company which made the game... and definitely not to the people who actually made the game (management might get extra bucks)
so when you buy for example Assasin Creed 2 via steam. Valve gets money, Ubi gets money, government gets money, banks get money.
but Jo Smith (random name) who worked on AC2 will get zilch.
it is also true with movies. A lead might share part of the revenue of the movie, a director too... 150 other people? they already got paid. they don't get anything.