Here's the thing though: Skyrim is an anomaly. Dev companies don't care if you're still playing their games after you buy them. It was Bethesda's biggest launch ever, and that's all they care about because just having players play the game doesn't make them money.

It's a sad pattern, but eventually all aging game dev studios take this path. They need a big launch. They don't need continued patronage from their players.

Also, I've only ever heard that starfield is a buggy mess with ironically limited gameplay options for the scope of the universe it's in, and the philosophy the studio took of "yeah not everything is supposed to be interesting, there's plenty of empty space" seems a lot like shooting themselves in the foot.

I like Starfield, but there being no way to play it aside from being a member of constelation is an RP killer, plus the lack of a survival mode

I'm not sure what point the title is making.

"Old games should be dying" ?

Skyrim has had a long time to build that player base, over generations of systems and thousands of mods.

Of course it has more players. McDonalds has more customers than this new cafe down the road from me but I still prefer them to fast food 🤷