I’d hate to say it, but look at any big publishers quarterly reports. Compare how much base games sell compared to micro transactions.

Image ^ EA’s

They would all like to take the lead and have “the” live service game but unfortunately even their bland attempts still bring in a lot of cash. This is why the push to live service is so aggressive.

The only thing that’s been slowing the push down is these big live service failures, which is making big publishers a little stingy on what games to push.

You are correct though, the big franchises have a lot of name recognition and its really hard for a competitor to muscle in on that established space (though they do try). Its a safe bet that often pays off, despite gamers lamenting it.