Unity, development engines specific to the consoles etc. They no longer have to build from the ground up when a handful of companies rent out their well built engines that make development way cheaper. Less employees needed. Way less expensive employees needed.
Companies like Epic don't rent out their engines for free. They're trading a higher up-front cost and risk that they can't get the engine built properly for a percentage of their revenue. The more successful the game is, the less they save by licencing an engine. To the point where a lot of big AAA releases lose money overall (which is why they make their own engines still).
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u/Loud_Interview4681 1d ago
When you sell a million copies and rent the development platform vs build it from the ground up as most games do now a days?