AAA game development has gotten significantly more costly and time consuming, to the point where it is now basically unsustainable and headed for imminent collapse.

For the Dark Souls example, though, I think it’s important to note that FromSoft still produced Sekiro in between Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring, leaving only a 3-year gap for Elden Ring to come out. Not to mention that the time between Demon Souls to Elden Ring is still less than the time gap between Skyrim and Elder Scrolls 6, so it’s also orders of magnitude of difference.