[margaretdouglas]

The issue is fundamentally that releasing a single game for a single fee yields linear growth, which is to say the amount your growing by is stagnant. Stagnant growth, to an investor, is essentially a signal that your company is currently failing. So unless you can grow your growth, you fail, and the only way to continue growing your growth is if new products remain cash generating indefinitely.

[hammock]

Not sure why you’re being downvoted. Your insight connects the software industry to the larger macroeconomic environment of low interest rates and growth-seeking (rent-seeking?). A one-off’s sales have a ceiling, where a recurring revenue source is an indefinite fountain of sales.

The same could be observed of Hollywood. How much of the derivative sequels, reboots and spin-offs are driven not by a lack of creativity as is often bemoaned, but rather by a greater-than-ever desire to develop “fountains of sales” rather than one-off artistic hits?