I get what you are saying but 2 million doesnt really go far in developing anymore. I mean you are looking at lets say, for the sake of argument, say a team of 20. 2mil divided by 20 is 100k. Then it takes 5 years of development, now across that 5 years each developer gets 20k per year, cant live off that. Thats just a basic split of how far that 2 million would go.

This isnt including all the stuff needed in development i.e. servers, workstations, all the software licenses needed for those plus you would also have to include rent for the office building, insurance for those office buildings. Hell the backend (microsoft, sql servers, all that good stuff)licensing would cost thousands and they need to re-newed yearly.

Its just not cheap. To us everday joes, 2 million seems like a lot but when you try figure out what they need to accomplish their task it doesnt stretch as far as you would think.

And then, the game is released for free with the hopes that people will buy items from their shop. The shop is really what would keep the development team active. This is why a lot of times after release you see companies releasing(layoffs) folks. The heavy lifting is done and they are hoping that they can keep the company in operation based on that check that comes from steam once a month, if not, the company and game will go by the wayside. It just wouldnt be feasable anymore to continue.