I feel there is absolutely a space for games that push boundaries at a higher price point. Games that push a, frankly, ridiculous level of graphics fidelity, games that have a genuine branching narrative on a demanding scale, games with handcrafted worlds that dwarf other games, new technology in general. Just anything that needs an inordinate amount of work when compared to the average game.

But that isn’t most games. You can make a pretty good game out of your garage on a shoestring budget (or even for free, if you cut costs) these days. The real cost of making a game isn’t rising, major studios are just bloated beyond belief and just making a profit isn’t enough for the leeches.

For bg3 in particular; they had average (around 100mil) AAA dev costs afaik, but for some stupid reason they had (a guesstimated) 200mil ad budget! They seriously do not need even 1 million to get their game in front of the targeted audience, that’s so insanely excessive.