Sadly, you can’t put a price on the soul of a game, but it must be pretty high since AAA can’t seem to have one very often.
Yes, the shiny (which I don’t really care about) is much more expensive, but so has the market expanded, since people in poorer countries can actually afford to a buy games now and then, from Portugal to Russia to China.
Not that sales are anywhere near close to what they were 5 years ago. Honestly, they spend too much for the same thing over and over, and the sooner they crash, the better.
EDIT: And there’s no more used sales, “rentals”, a lot more customers over 30, many who pre-order and buy season passes that provide them a nice, guaranteed cashflow for a product that is usually buggy for months.
I’m sorry, if 4 million sales isn’t enough to make a great profit, the issue is not with your customers.