In this case I think it’s more that live service titles are what large publishers currently like to demand from developers, so a company with a long track record of great single player games suddenly pivoting to live service multiplayer bullshit is usually a sign of direct publisher interference in an otherwise successful studio.

When these companies were left to their own devices, they made great games. But once the goose lays a few golden eggs, the owners get greedy (or new owners move in) and start trying to turn their products into an endless cash engine.

The passionate, creative people quit rather than be forced to build games someone else’s way, the soul of the company dies, and the product turns to shit (in many cases, the “soul” was “devs working ridiculous hours to produce a great game in spite of terrible leadership decisions”, so we shouldn’t lionise it too much, but the results are what they are).