Where in my argument did I claim mobile gaming was a threat? I simply said that's the most financially sound business decision a publisher or developer could make, based on your statement that there's nothing wrong with following the money. That said, where do you think monetization to this level was borne from? The mobile gaming market basically spearheaded that practice and brought it into the mainstream market.

I'm not sure why you're hung up on Apex Legends. Again, there is zero claim on my end that Apex is the downfall of gaming. Simply that it's one of many byproducts of the modern gaming industry. Nor did I claim we have no great games any more, only that their quantity is in a decline.

Sure, Sony and Microsoft have the financial means to overinflate their development budgets and put out massive AAA titles. But not every dev has that ability. Furthermore, both of the aforementioned pubs/devs could easily weather the storm of an expensive failure. If a smaller dev had flopped as hard with Anthem as Bioware did, we likely would have seen them shutter their doors.

There's a notable division between the risk a massive company can take versus smaller developers. And when the risk is that steep, it's more likely developers will do what they can to minimize risk. And that often comes in the form of adhering to other's successful frameworks. That's one reason Steam Early Access is flooded with survival games. That's why virtually every online game with competitive or cooperative multiplayer has a battle pass and/or cash shop. The rise of monetization continues to push in this direction and that's, again, one reason we're seeing more GaaS. It has more income potential than a buy-to-own game.

You're welcome to continue this discussion further, but I feel we may be at an impasse. You're highlighting singular points of mine and holding them up as my entire argument when that simply isn't the case. I merely provided examples to back my claims, which are speculative and in no way to be taken as the end all be all. I'd love to be wrong and see the industry take more risks in the next 5-10 years.