PC gaming has never been better, but owning PC games has never felt more temporary

Gog and steam pretty much how they were 10-15 years ago. And that’s all I use. It’s been a long time since boxed pc games.

I buy my games on steam since forever, dont care about Discs etc. Why should Steam be gone?

you buy a license on steam not a game

"owning pc games"

Unfortunately this term doesn't mean what you think it means. Or rather, what you want it to mean.

We got fucked by the courts years ago when they ruled we don't own software, just a license to use it.

The other part of the problem is that companies have decided that games need to be continual income streams. Part of that is the massive cost of actually developing a game. You can't blame them for wanting a game to make a profit. After all, it is a business. At the same time though, I miss the days when a game was made and both player and developer/publisher knew that it was a complete game and that was it. Maybe some bug fixes if it popped up a lot, or an expansion set if it sold well. But usually, a game shipped and that was it. I doubt we go back to that unless you stick with indie devs.

Regardless, I think we're seeing the end stage of pc gaming. Unless this whole AI thing turns out to be a bubble and bursts, I don't think we're going to see PC hardware stay in the affordability range for most people and because of that, I think we're going to see gaming move more to the consoles or cloud gaming environments. My big fear with cloud gaming is that PC games will end up going the route of mobile games - ads, and massive microtransactions the likes which makes the current MTX in games seem like a joke.

Let's say there's a future where Gabe Newell dies, and his heirs decide to take a huge sack of cash from some entity -- let's call it for sake of arguement something like the "Public Investment Fund" from oh, Schmaudi Lablayblia -- to purchase Steam in a leveraged buyout where Valve takes on an unfathomable amount of debt. Then that entity decides Steam now needs infinite growth, to reach billions of players, and if it can't achieve that right away they just fire everyone at Valve and eventually shut the service down. Now all your digital games are gone.

It's becoming less and less outlandish of a possibility as the industry collapses inward on itself.

Pirates all you want, but pretending it's a noble thing is really dumb.

Steam/valve does not prohibit destructive drm, which is what OP is effectively talking about.

Third party DRM is required to be flagged/notified, but that's it. Example is how prevalent denuvo is (which is a destructive / kill-switch DRM).

Once denuvo servers shut down, any game running on denuvo becomes unplayable going forward (unless it's been cracked/bypassed).

This was the same issue as with securom, old cd/dvd copies of games can not be run unless you crack them, due to StarForce and securom being used as DRM.

Preserving is only good if its stored online so many people can access it.

Physical preservation is people having them sit on a shelf so they can brag about havig a rare game.

Because just as with digital you have to make a pirated copy of it and bypass the copy protection to share it with many people.

So in the end it leads to piracy no matter if you choose physical or digital.

I gave up on physical media after the Diablo 3 disk had only battle.net on it. No warning on the box and no notice that it was an only online game. Which is the peak of fucking horrible for single player games. Hit the attack button and watch the sprite lag for no reason.

Anyways if I am buying games it’s through GOG and download and store the install files locally. Occasionally I will pick up a game on Steam on deep discount. Never know what’s going to happen to that company when Gaben isn’t in charge. Honestly I play most of my games on PC game pass. The rare times I have wanted to jump back into a game I have found it cheap on GOG or Steam.

Physical games on discs are the same thing though, you're still technically just buying the license

Nothing lasts forever even no November rain.

When Gaben moves on there is no guarantee that new leadership won’t change the agreement.

The communities always going to preserve games better than the company that makes.