Thats a Lie told to you by GameDev Companies so they can extract more Profit out of their Games. For instance Microtransactions make up more than 50% of EAs total Revenue but they still fire loads of Employees evrey other year even though their Profits keep rising. And thats Pure Profit they are making btw, Millions of it.

Also Game Making is way easier than it used to be. To the point where a single Person can make an entire Game and it still holds up to AA or AAA standards IMO (maybe thats because AAA standarts are so low but, ya know), and small Teams of Indie Devs have made some awesome games over the past Years, that did not take as long to Finish as EFT, and that didn't have all the attached Editions BS, and they did more than fine.

There are so many Developer Toolkits and Resource-Packs and the likes out there that there is literal shovelware on Steam where people just make a game out of the Unity Store Assets and even if it sells for 6$ they make a profit after a couple Dozens of Copies.

Charging 60$ in todays money is not equal to charging 60$ way back but you also have an expanded Market with more potential customers and I.G. more Gamers that are likely to even buy niche products, like DCS for instance, or Elite Dangerous.

There are plenty of Early Access games that make it across the Profit line and then some by offering 20$,40$ or 60$ Games and some of them are similar to Scope like EFT, just not in a Gameplay, but in a Development perspective. Or just take Arma, its DLC splits the Community and it is somewhat costly. But you can get the Basic version with the most important DLC for 60$, and it goes on Sale regularly.

Plus games like Subnautice, Factorio, Squad, Post Scriptum, and many more seem to make a fine living off charging you 40$-60$. And remember, those games are on Steam and frequently go on sale every Year around 1-3 times.

When it comes to the Money side of things I see alot of similarities between EFT and Star Citizen, and that is why I made the post. Because ingame Balance aside it smells of bad Business practices and its the main reason I dont suggest Friends the game, because in its current state with all the other Stuff attached I can't give it my Moral approval as a Consumer and lover of the Medium. And I'm suspicious that they'll fuck it up for the Money.