When do you accept a royalty per game sold deal?

A royalty agreement is a company's way of shifting financial risk from themselves to the content creators. It cuts their upfront costs for assets, and they only have to pay you if they make money. In return they offer you the potential for higher long-term earnings - it's up to you to determine whether the risk outweighs the potential earnings.

How does it work and what organizations handle royalties for video games[/quote]
In general, you have a lawyer who specialises in such things draw up a contract, which includes the exact specification of royalties due, and a provision granting access to the companies financial records in case of a dispute.

However, it is worth keeping in mind that if the company decides to screw you, then recovering any royalties they may owe you is very difficult - likely requiring a lengthy (and expensive) court battle.

When do you accept a royalty per game sold deal? I usually like a flat fee upfront, but I've had an offer for a possible royalty per game sold contract Anyone have experience with this way? How does it work and what organizations handle royalties for video games

I'd be very careful with royalties per game sold deals, make sure the contract is clear and that there is no way for them to switch to for example a F2P model (no games sold) and still use your work.
You should also make sure you are getting payed per sold game and not a percentage of profits, (percentage of revenue is ok but profits are trivial to shift around between projects or even studios)

When do you accept a royalty per game sold deal? I usually like a flat fee upfront, but I've had an offer for a possible royalty per game sold contract Anyone have experience with this way? How does it work and what organizations handle royalties for video games

Don't accept any royalty agreement that isn't from a proven source (e.g. a developer with a proven track record). Draft a clear contract and make sure that you have a good lawyer. Usually, royalty should be considered a plus on top of a flat fee pay -- but each to their own.

>>You should also make sure you are getting payed per sold game and not a percentage of profits, (percentage of revenue is ok but profits are trivial to shift around between projects or even studios)

I'd be careful with that, too. Many games these days are "fremium" games. They are free to download (they're not 'sold'), and money is made from purchasing virtual items within the game. do a google search on "Smurfberry iphone" to get an idea..

Btw, reasonable for such a game is "percentage of revenue, with a cap." meaning that you'd get a percentage of the amount the game makes, but not to exceed ($0.xx)/download.

swiftcoder hit the nail on the head. You'll be assuming the risk if the game doesn't do well. In some cases it's appropriate and in some cases it's not. What I'd push for is a combination of flat rate and profit share (or royalties) - which could help offset some of the initial cost of audio for the developer if they're a young(er) company. But be careful. Too many indie game developers/teams throw around the phrase "profit share" too carelessly. Almost all of my work has been for flat rate. A few times I've also accepted a back-end profit share but never only a profit share. Basically a project has to be super special and I have to really know and trust the work, vision and capabilities of the team for me to accept the risk of not getting paid.

Hope that helps,

Nate