Marketing is a big money drain for a lot of games too. Cyberpunk 2077 and GTA V are two games with marketing budgets big enough to finance a dozen other games. I guess a new title like cyberpunk would need more marketing (still not $142 million worth of marketing) but GTA was already a well established franchise that probably didn’t need as much marketing as it had.
Even games like call of duty and assassins creed which have a core fan base that can expect a new game on a regular basis don’t need to market as much as they do.
The writing is exceptionally well done as is everything else about the game. The story is nothing crazy but the dialogue and characters are where the writing really shines. If you’re a fan of the genre, this is definitely worth picking up especially since it’s only $20.