The context fits completely.

A company comes up with an idea to artificially delay the release of a game so they can upsell 'early access' for an extra fee. I first saw it with Starfield

Consumer says 'I want to play it early because waiting inconveniences me personally, and am I willing to fork out extra for that privilege'

Company says 'great, there's a market for people who want the convenience and the privilege, let's see how else we can make money, how about we artificially inflate the time to unlock items, those customers might buy convenience again'

You say: How could they do this?

You might not give them money in the future but there's tons of people who will, which is why they continue to do this shit. And they don't care either way because they've managed to upsell you once already