>>715621528
the entire entertainment industry is spiraling into full consolidation mode, it's not unique to video games
music has been in freefall for a long time now, 2015 was the first year old music outsold new stuff and that trend has only continued
video games are just copying what hollywood has been doing for the last 10 years: cutting the quantity of movies they make, increasing the budgets to astronomical proportions and then banking on having another Endgame
unfortunately they aren't just doing it because they're retarded; many other actions are motivated by that, but not this one
The numbers show that blockbusters are the only movies making 10-20x what they put in. Even relatively successful movies with a budget of a few million are only breaking even or earning a little more.
Now video games are following the same pattern: every AAA studio is giving their games enormous budgets, 5-10 years of development, a bunch of advertising and then releasing a wet fart that makes NO money. They're not even making 'box office flop' level money, they're making Uwe Boll money.
Neither industry is willing to step back from their current scheme because they're suffering big time from sunk cost fallacy. If Hollywood studios would release 2-3 movies a year with a <10m budget they would make more money. If video game studios would do the same - or just take some risks by doing things like game jams - then they could also make some fucking money.
But neither one wants to because they are obsessed with a 10 digit paycheck.