At the same time, games cost fully half of what they did in the '90s in real dollars as development costs have risen, so we should expect some reasonable ways for them to stay in business. If we just take the MSRP of Wing Commander 1 and draw an inflation line to today, new games would cost more than $150.
Yes, but at the same time audiences have exploded into the millions. Wing Commander 1 cost $80 on release if I remember right, but there were relatively few customers. Halo can charge $60 easily because of the sales of the game. It will easily sell a couple million copies. The problem with companies like EA and 2K is their immoral and underhanded decision to put gambling mechanics in games rated for children. The ESRB and companies like EA have a lot to answer for. Real lives have been destroyed over these. I know one person who plays star trek online religiously, and routinely wastes almost all his money on the game because he just cannot help himself. I know another who plays FIFA with the same issue. I know one guy that committed suicide because he got so far in debt because of these gambling mechanics that he could see no way out.
These companies don't need to find more ways to make profit. There's already enough profit in launching a game for $60 to millions. What they have to do is cut out the dead weight, and reduce their budget. CDPR and Nintendo have no problems pushing out great games at both ends of the spectrum for $60, although Nintendo has a bit of a advantage because of licensing fees.
Gut upper management to what's needed, remove bonuses for executives, don't make the company public so you don't have to worry about investors crying because you're not making all the money. Corporations can bring out the worst in people.
Corporations exist to make money, if they didn't do these underhanded and borderline illegal things to psychologically manipulate people into part with their hard earned cash causing people with addictive personalities (more commonly found in gamers) issues then they would have to do something else to make more money. I can tell you what it is. Greed. And I hope the lot of them go to hell. The CEOs and management, the marketing department, the artists, the developers, the pr and community managers. They're all guilty.