There was a recent report, it only helps during the first few months of sales according to a very flimsy study that was done.
It suggests that it only saves a mean of 15% total revenue during the first 12 weeks.
Though remember, these figures are all just theoretical projections of sales. Basically just “well we believe we should have made this much revenue. So if we don’t make it, it means we lost potential revenue, not that we simply didn’t make as much as we thought we would.”
It’s pretty obvious that any creative endeavor that requires artistic influence will always be handicapped by our current economy.
As soon as all of these dev companies became large corporations, their mission changed from creating a fun, entertaining experience into producing the cheapest possible product they can get away with that will still sell and generate revenue.
Art requires risk and imperfections, but risk and imperfections are diametrically oppositional to the economic endeavor of generating the absolute most potential profit possible.