You can still drop 10 mil on a game and make a SIGNIFICANT improvement.

The problem isn't the present value or money, or the concept of diminishing returns, it's WHAT they're spending the money on.

Four million to GaymerX consultations with a million sidebarred for Sweet Baby Inc., and five million more to have Treehouse localize the game into English, you've dropped 10 mil, but each of those decisions will REDUCE your overall sales, not increase them, not even keep them static. Put down 2 mil on an HR push for inclusion in the workplace, and you're down 4 mil in net profit. Put that same 2 mil into actual game devs, or artists, or the HR screening the artists for those who actually match the "vision" of making a game that sells rather than one that is approved by committee, or into the voice acting, or the music...

Hell, put that 10 mil into a perpetuity annuity that pays out 1 million dollars in tournament prize money per year (through university education grants, so it's also a charitable donation), and it would be a FAR better way to spend the money than what AAA companies are doing presently. At least that would be cash-neutral marketing with a double-dip in tax deductions, rather than pissing away sales by trying to appease the rainbow mafia.