Your mean classic RPGs like PoE that have them in a near perpetual state of insolvency?
As far as I'm aware Pillars of Eternity made them a lot of money. The perpetual state of insolvency has been with them since their founding back in the mid-2000s. It's why most of their games have been 'odd-jobs' for other studios and rehashing old IPs. The number of 'new games' they've created from scratch has always been extremely small and when they have tried that they have invariably produced poor selling games that don't really interest many people.
Let's go through the catalogue:
1st game: Sequel to KOTOR, KOTOR 2, published by Lucas Arts and used Bioware's engine. Low risk, low investment, potentially high returns but likely would only see a cut of profits, not all profits would go to them.
2nd game: Neverwinter Nights 2, published by Atari, but this time they had to do some work creating a new engine out of the old NWN engine. Again, a sequel to a Bioware game, but the opportunity for a decent profit was larger here.
3rd game: Alpha Protocol. Oh wow, their first unique IP, published by Sega and uses a market made engine. Opportunity for profits are large, but the game releases unstable, something for which the company now has a reputation for.
4th game: Fallout: New Vegas, Published by Bethesda, using Bethesda's engine. Again, being commissioned to make a sequel that the original company can't be bothered to make, this time for Fallout 3. Opportunity for big profit stifled by Bethesda.
5th game: Dungeon Siege 3: Doing a sequel for Square Enix this time, but they do develop their own engine. I have no idea what the profit outlook was for something like this.
6th game: South Park, the Stick of Truth: Winning a commission from Ubisoft this time to make a game based on a television franchise. I'm sure I read somewhere that this was their most profit-making game to date.
7th game: Pillars of Eternity. Commissioned by kickstarter pledgers to make a new Infinity Engine game, published by Paradox and using a market made engine. A new IP in name but a sequel in practice. Opportunity for big profits was higher than most other projects.
8th game: Skyforge, working with another developer, Allods Team and published by My.com, an MMORPG that I know very little about other than MMOs have potential for high profit but are a high gambol scene.
9th game: Pathfinder Adventures, an attempt to profit from the mobile market published by Asmodee North America. Again, high profit potential but high risk.
10th game: Tyranny, published by Paradox and using a market made engine. Something that was completely their own IP again, with a high potential for profit but, once again, didn't manage to catch the public's imagination.
11th game: Pillars of Eternity 2, published by Versus Evil using a market made engine. The opportunity to make the real profit from the new IP they'd created from Infinity Engine fan's original kickstarter. See's them again miss their shot at appealing to sufficient numbers of people.
Then they sold-out to Microsoft.
So what does your statement about blaming their interest in classic RPGs mean? Because they haven't really had a legacy of creating classic RPGs. In fact, the only games they've 'created' would be:
Alpha Protocol
Tyranny
Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire
All of which try their damnedest to escape the confines of classic RPGs and suggest that making classic RPGs is the last thing on their minds and that it was this stubborn refusal to cater to the classic RPG market that was the reason why these games essentially flopped, especially combined with a long-held reputation for making unstable games.
So I've no idea where you get the notion to make a point in such a discussion as this that it was the 'classic RPGs' that 'kept them in a state of near bankruptcy' when the truth is pretty much the complete opposite.
Nevertheless, I find your points valid and I agree.
