The AAA games industry has found a way to keep its product premium priced, and so when they have millions of people go out and buy the latest thing, they're not

The AAA games industry has found a way to keep its product premium priced, and so when they have millions of people go out and buy the latest thing, they're not paying $15, they're paying $70 (and the long tail of discounts starts at that high price point). That yields enormous day one revenues. On top of this companies have increasingly leveraged paid expansion Downloadable Content releases to both add value, which provides a supportive floor to the core product, and to yield further revenue from current players.