Death Stranding 2 underperformed.
It sold only 2-3 million copies which, depending on how much money they spent on development and marketing, may be a net loss
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Stranding_2%3A_On_the_Be...
No wonder they made me pay 80€ for it. Making up for the losses.
Severing your relationship with a generation-defining artist because they had one whiff that only brought in $140,000,000+ in revenue seems shortsighted, even if you actually did lose money on that entry. About what I would expect from the MBA-driven economy, though. Your golden goose has shit out 10 golden eggs for you, then it lays one regular egg and you try to kill it. Except you fail and somebody else gets your goose instead.