It's mind boggling when the costs of games get leaked (or revealed during court cases). It makes me sad that so many studios have pivoted to the strategy you've described because it means we'll have less games of a franchise I enjoy since the development takes so long or the developement is never even started because people have decided the profit won't be as high as making a blockbuster game. Hell, look at Rockstar milking whales with GTA V, that's a slightly different conversation, but it's crazy how long the gap between GTA V and GTA VI are