So wait if buying a game doesn’t help devs then where do they get their money from?
The company that hires the developers... I don't think they have contracts like actors where they receive more money if the game sold more. You can argue that the revenue coming in keeps them employed but by all reports, sales were disappointing for them.
It depends company to company but bonus pay because of sales directly does exist in our industry. Disappointing sales also mean something different. If the goal was 10 and you sold 7 that's disappointing. But to pay for the cost of development was 4 it's still disappointing because it's not 10 it was 7.
Just stating this stuff since a lot of the time how our industry works isn't clear outside the industry. <3