The big AAA publishers have other, generally more legit routes to follow to leech more money off consumers. Season passes are basically a win-win for publishers - they sell their initial game for what they feel like the full price should be ($80-120), the quality/value of the season pass content isn't 100% nailed down so they can skimp if they want, and then they can release the "GotY Edition" to snag any remaining customers. Microtransactions are also still a thing that isn't considered gambling (but seems almost as dangerous a trap for kids to fall into).

Which means lowering the wages...which is exactly what is happening in the industry.

No. Just spend less on unnecessary extravagances. 

This is why they should stay $60.

Interesting point and yes, that’s happening indeed.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m in no way defending the loot box shit. I despise it...I’m just searching for valid and “acceptable” alternatives. I’m not sure if delivering incomplete games really is that acceptable to me, cause that’s exactly what has been happening as well.

Well, I feel like I might be repeating the same argument, but the solution is controlling the damn budgets. AAA gaming industry expends a lot in unnecessary stuff, and that's not a valid excuse to make every gamer pay for it if they can't control themselves xD.

Lowering the wages in the games industry. Wages mostly get raised over time in other businesses.

That statement is BS and you know it. Btw it was Disney who forced them to take them out. 

Those arguments are questionable, because people simply expect a certain level of sophistication with AAA productions these days. 

I wonder why no one (except arcaneguyver) has reacted to my basic argument yet..the argument that games have objectively become cheaper over time.

The argument with season passes essentially being used in order to compensate, is the only truly valid one yet. No offense. If you want simpler, cheaper games, get indies.

Here's a publisher telling it's shareholders - the only people they feel any desire to be truthful to - that a profit turning business model has been axed but bears no detriment to their bottom line.  What this means is that $60 + DLC + Season Pass + multi tiered deluxe editions are making them the intended profit.  At $60, they're still making more money than you or I will ever see in our lives.  

As others have pointed out to you, publishers make their own beds.  That $60 goes farther than it ever has, with costs of physical production at an all time low and the rapidly rising sales of digital copies.  Yet they continue to perpetuate the lie that games are so expensive - they aren't.  In fact, it's more affordable than ever.  It's when you kick your budget management out the door and add unnecessary "features" and prolong development that they get expensive.

If you're feeling sorry for developers and their hungry families, point them to Ninja Theory, who just struck gold with Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice.  Or the thousands of independent developers who are raking it in on the Nintendo Switch alone.  Developers like Respawn that deal with the devil get no sympathy from me; in today's market, publishers are not a necessary evil like they once were.  

There's no excuse in a digital era for "starving artists" nor the greed fueled corporations trying to coax them into signing the dotted line.

good news for the UK. You are leaving the EU. Cost of games in EU will rise a bit if they are banned out right.