The business and revenue models are just changing, similar to the music industry: The main source of income is no longer the one-time sale of a game. Just like

The business and revenue models are just changing, similar to the music industry: The main source of income is no longer the one-time sale of a game. Just like most big artists don't earn much money with album sales. Instead big game franchises rely on recurrent small revenue streams through loot boxes, season passes, etc. Big artists rely on licensing fees from streaming services and ticket sales for concerts. Both of these revenue sources are not viable for relatively unknown artists - they get supported either via donations (like patreon) or traditional album sales (lots of "indie" artists started selling vinyl again). I think the analogy holds for games as well. Smaller studios still live from one time sales on steam, GoG, etc. So the business model only really changes at the top and I don't feel like we as consumers are any worse off - quite the contrary actually: Playing a new game with friends required quite an investment in the late 90s, ie. everybody had to spend 50-90 bucks for the new Age of Empires. Nowadays everybody can try out Fortnite and those who don't like it simply uninstall it.