I'm not sure about that analogy, I was an NES gamer through now.  PS1 and OG Xbox games lasted roughly as long as they do now.  An RPG back then last about as long as a similar RPG now.   A fighting game now has roughly the same number of fighters and levels as then, except DLC adds more.  Now is thos true for all no but in general yes.  Also many publishers have come out and said that DLC only exists due tot he fact that the price to create a game now is vastly more expensive than it was 15-20 years ago but it would be very bad PR to make a standard game $70-80.