AAA wouldn’t remove macrotransactions to counter the higher price, they would just charge more for the game and keep everything the same. The current generation has been conditioned by mtx, it’s no longer a whale problem. it’s a norm that the average consumer accepts and buys into, which has fucked the industry.

Overwatch was priced at $40 on launch, it was just multiplayer after all. They priced it brilliantly and the mtx they had were pointless and non-invasive, a far cry to what that game has devolved into these days. Overwatch ‘2’ was a forced patch which turned the game free-to-play and added all the aforementioned cancer mtx.
BG3 is $60, without any mtx. So I don’t really understand the point you are making at all, it is just false that they were priced the same, BG3 didn’t need to cost more, if it’s cheaper it’s more accessible to more people and the volume of sales makes up for the lower price, don’t forget (like they want you to) there are a LOT more people playing and buying games now than 5, 10, 20 years ago.

Games are half-baked because people’s standards have dropped and they will just buy half-baked shit, people still pre-order digital games… or they buy special editions to let them play the game 3 days early or whatever, the situation we are in is the fault of mindless consumption, not the fact game prices haven’t significantly increased.

Until AAA games can remove the predatory monetisation, and gain our trust back, we should not be agreeing to be charged more. These companies aren’t struggling, they are turning over record profits. Support indie developers, fuck AAA.