A number of years ago when I ran development for a software company we would always muse over the fact that the discs we just burned cost under a dollar, yet sold for 7 figures. What we were selling was software. Therefore, you invested heavily in people and development environments and tools to optimize the development processes, from design to test to release mgmt. This is the same with video games.
Stern, JJP, etc, are selling lights and bumpers, furniture and art, sounds and magnets. When the bean counters look at the numbers, the big numbers (and therefore greatest opportunity for savings) are probably in things like cabinets and coils. When the marketing people look at the business, they are probably focused on theme and art. It is easy to see why software development could take a back seat.