Both the companies pushing these types of the games the "gamers" who continue to specifically demand them, are at fault. Especially the types who say things like:
"This game isn't worth $60 because it's not 4K/60fps"
Or
"Insert game here shouldn't cost this amount because I've deemed it to be of a lesser genre."
These are a vocal minority, but from what I've experienced that minority is getting louder and larger as time goes on. Obviously the bulk of the blame rests on the companies pushing these developments and laying people off after ballooning their development costs to unattainable levels, but they didn't just start doing this out of the blue.
Meanwhile, Nintendo sells Mario Party Superstars. A very high quality, which many people would argue has "little content", is a party game, costs a fraction to make, is 1080p, and then it goes to sell like 10 million copies.
They also sell Metroid Dread and it sold over 3 million, which we know turned a very good profit.
Same with Pikmin.
Or literally a life simulation game and then that game blows up and sells something like 40 million.
It's because Nintendo didn't condition their audience to prioritize realism or graphics. The reason why everyone on the PS side and Xbox side is obsessed with 4k 60fps is because they were key marketing points for the PS5 and Xbox Series.
Even though Nintendo is more resistant to rising development costs than the rest of their industry, I do actually wonder if their huge tentpole franchises would eventually hit diminishing returns and get less ROI than previous games which would be cause for concern.
3D Mario and Zelda are what I'm thinking of here. Ever since Galaxy 2, there has been an emphasis on more and more content, from 120 stars in 64 to 242 stars in Galaxy 2. Then Odyssey amps it up to 880 moons, although each moon would be individually cheaper to make since you could just place majority of them wherever you want and not as tightly balance them in comparison. And Zelda games since Wind Waker has tried to push the hour counts higher and higher per game.
I wonder when they just stop and decide there's a limit? Tears of the Kingdom only has ~30 extra shrines versus Breath of the Wild, but there's also way more bespoke content elsewhere like caves, the depths, and the sky. It is possible to pull that off, though. Something like Dark Souls 2 is the longest Souls game From Software made (until Elden Ring) while Bloodborne is the shortest Souls game and came out after (and has the shittiest PvP of them all lol), yet is more critically praised and revered.
Luckily, I think this is the only two series that might be having limits on content growth. Something like 2D Mario is kinda a bit of a sidestep here. They all consistently have 8 worlds with like 80 or so levels, and Super Mario Bros Wonder even cut some content from New Super Mario Bros 2 / U with no challenge modes at all. A highly underrated mode that added more challenging content for expert Mario players, but just not present in Wonder. Ironically enough, more money went into graphical presentation and animation, though they also put good money in making sure the base content was stellar, just at the cost of other modes like Coin Battle and Challenge Mode.
Also not a sales tentpole series, but something like Metroid: Samus Returns is actually like the same length as Metroid Dread lmao. Seems like a 10 hour hard-cap is good and sustainable for them, which I prefer from a Metroidvania game design standpoint anyway.
Nintendo has a bunch of series that don't break the bank, but it's just food for thought. Though, I could imagine something like Nintendo Switch Sports ACTUALLY having a higher budget than you'd think because of how that game was in development for like 5 years lol.
Tears of the Kingdom had way more content because all of its staff were seasoned veterans on the BotW style. It's because they didn't lay off anyone. They did kind of get screwed over by Covid though, which is why Tears took a bit longer. Creating those 120/150 Shrines was probably way far easier than creating the 10 dungeons of something like Twilight Princess or Skyward Sword. Think of the amount of puzzles that intertwine with another, you no longer need that and designers can just split up the work easier. And since the same designers of those same games are still at Nintendo, they can make easy and quick work of it, and get other members up to speed too.
The next Zelda game can have a lot more content because their staff is going to be even more experienced.
Though Nintendo really knows that developer numbers need to rise, and that's why they are constructing brand new buildings. So development costs are bound to rise a little bit.
Nintendo as a company though is so healthy though, because they are diversifying into more than just games. Playstation has a lead foot because Sony's other products and film divisions aren't doing quite hot right now. That puts way too much pressure on PlayStation to be profitable. Microsoft has the opposite problem, where games aren't anywhere close to its most profitable division.
Meanwhile, Nintendo has some very clear avenues for growth. I am absolutely positive they are aware that they are starting to hit a ceiling. But their avenues of growth aren't in games. They probably want games to continue to sell just as good for the Switch 2 as Switch 1. But then they want to continue to expand their theme parks, and their movie divisions. That's where the growth of Nintendo will come from for probably the next 10 years. And then that will feed back into games too
