silentbogoThat's not really correct. For example, on Steam they still refer to it as "Subscription" with all underlying caveats. On EGS they call it a license, but just few paragraphs later they shield themselves essentially from any responsibility with several pages of legal blabber. To be more dramatic, if EGS decides to remove all your games from their storefront and all user libraries - they bear no legal responsibility because you've already signed off your right to sue Epic. And if you want to exercise your local consumer rights as a buyer, you may also be in trouble cause "All rights granted to you under this Agreement are granted by express license only and not by sale."
The only exception is GOG, which treats "purchases" as actual "purchases" with all legal obligations, but if for some reason it stops existing - you better hope you got your digital downloads backed up offline. Neither service is perfect, and neither guarantees that you will be able to play your games at any point in time in the future.
Physical copies are cool and all, but let's remember that for the past 10+ years most of those still ship with some sort of online DRM (...khm...thanks Blizzard and Valve for setting the trend...) and are no different than buying it from any digital distribution platform.


Exactly that.
There's also a more drastic way of looking at it, which should be more to liking to people over 35: think of it as old gaming magazines. Most of us bought those not just for content, but for game reviews and demo disks. Since demos are the thing of the past and become as rare as whales, playing $10/mo for access to full versions of many more games is sorta crazy comparing to spending the same amount on few shitty articles, few biased/paid reviews and few short demos every month. It's a matter of perspective.

Now let's take this to court and see where the reality lands. The fact remains, a software license is a form of ownership, a contract. Whatever Steam or EGS love to define in their (not legally binding) EULAs, I really don't give a damn about. There is a reason nothing like this went to court yet. Nobody wants to go there, and all things that even remotely look like a precedent for this situation all turn out in customer's favor.

After all, when I signed the contract, I was given the impression the license was indefinite. That on its own is already enough, especially in the EU where they still know right from wrong and consumer protection is front and center. I'll predict where a 'not available on Steam' message ends up: Valve is going to have to provide an alternative method of accessing the game, its just a distributor and its failing to uphold its end of the bargain: distribution. The content was sold as a product. Not as a recurring thing. Steam's just a salesman with extra responsibilities.

In much the same way... Warframe still sells itself as 'open beta' game. With a full real-money economy behind it... another one of those very shaky software realities that would never fly in a real world, but as long as nobody is complaining, the status quo can remain. Its new territory, these digital goods, just like Big Data its a Wild West do as you please and usually it gets rewarded. Tech companies figured that out long ago. Keep advancing beyond the reaches of the law and keep everyone guessing. Uber, and all those participation economy start ups are more of the same. Avoiding rules to make profit, that is all it is, or bending them if you're big enough (FB, Google, Apple, Amazon, etc).

Cloud gaming is the next step - it actually - truly - removes the legal grounds you have in terms of ownership. Why do you think they all want it and nearly give it away? They want you to get so used to it, the concept of actual ownership fades away and with that, all your power as a consumer just the same. This is for the young 'uns. Not for us. We know better... hopefully. Shareholders' dreams is what these are, nothing else, and we're diving head first into it like lemmings.

silentbogoThe only exception is GOG, which treats "purchases" as actual "purchases" with all legal obligations, but if for some reason it stops existing - you better hope you got your digital downloads backed up offline.

Yep! it’s why all 400(+) games I have from GOG are stored on an external drive and backed up to my server. :)