Quoted from PinMonk:True, but you're not figuring in the HUGE savings on the manufacturer side when media cost for games went from $18 roms to $1 CDs to $0 downloads. The media costs, which were a huge part of SNES/Genesis fell precipitously. Of course, the console manufacturers sucked up some of that savings in more in royalties, but the overall costs to the publishers went down, and the order requirements fell, too, reducing upfront costs and risk.
Not to mention that distribution went to nothing, and they sell more games than ever, even in the face of blatant piracy. No, they are not hurting by any stretch of the imagination. The ones getting screwed are the developers, but that is between them and the corporations they work for. It's no different than hollywood saying 'we didn't make any money' to avoid having to pay royalties to screenwriters etc. No, we as the consumer have every right to be against anything that can be manipulated, because it happens all the time. It isn't some tin foil hat conspiracy theory. It's the natural progression that happens when you allow things that are anti-consumer to begin with. If they want to cut costs, maybe not spend hundreds of millions on advertising.
No one complained about expansion packs back in the day, there's reasons for that. People started complaining when it was obvious games were being planned around making people pay for more content from the very beginning.