The moves, cartoons, etc had little to no effect on the production of the games--their involvement with those projects amounted to signing a licensing deal and collecting an advance, and the whole reason they were eager to do it was because it's an easy way to bring in additional funds without having to do much of anything.
Shovel Knight was merched out the wazoo before it even came out, for similar reasons--if someone offers to drop some cash in your lap in exchange for producing something that'll potentially grow your audience, you take the deal, it's a no-brainer.
The games went to shit because they over-promised on platforms, on physical rewards, on feature set, etc which turned a potentially reasonable budget into chicken feed.
