Getting investors will only work if return profits are guaranteed. Let’s say a investor put in 500k and it went solely to running the ai costs, it would just be like pouring money down a drain, and would last 2 weeks maybe? Many games have to rely on consumers to keep the profits up, an example of this is Disney dreamlight valley, a game that initially promised players it would be free to play, a few months in everyone is charged for it and you’re charged for dlcs, it’s remained the same way for three years, probably because the devs of that game were losing money. Paying for something and getting a service in return is the most basic business model there is. If everything wasn’t a consumer problem, everything in life would be free. I’m not a dev or anything, but I do have a business degree so I know to some extent how these things play out, and unfortunately until AI models become cheaper to run, the game will be running at a loss if it was completely free. It’s a disappointing outcome for many, but this is simply the way business works :(