The "something" that changed is that private equity (and even banks) figured out how to financially model MMOs just like SAAS.

I think Tomasz Tunguz illustrates this concept beautifully in considering SAAS / MMOs as annuities (1)

With little incremental cost to each additional user, and predictable revenue over time, the customer acquisition cost becomes highly flexible if you can finance it (or leverage it).

As a result it's become an arms race and a common VC model today is to spend 2 - 3x total annual revenue in marketing spend to land grab new channels while the "annuity" cost is low.

If you're open to sharing more details you may spark somebody's attention on HN :) - I personally invest in SAAS / MMO / CRE + bring customer acquisition expertise (and a team) for cases exactly like this - although we try to target some minimum scale ($5m+ ARR / ASR)

(1) https://tomtunguz.com/recurring-gross-margin-dollar-efficien...