People said the same thing when Steam launched, yet my profile sits there with a badge saying 20+ years and I can’t recall a time I’ve encountered an issue that was the fault of Valve versus a developer or publisher.

At this point the games I “own” on physical media like CDs have theoretically started to degrade before the threat of Valve revoking my ability to install or play has come to pass.

The problem is what will happen when Gabe Newell passes away.

My GOG installers will never degrade though.

This is because of Gabe and Valve itself, and it's not a universal constant. I have quite a few licensed software where I have the license, but installing the software is impossible.

This is why I still keep a copy of the software I bought, and religiously backup that trove. Because someday that S3 bucket or SendOwl link or company server will go down.

Sometimes, a company will raise prices, so the publisher will have to kill the old links. C64Audio had to switch to BandCamp and invalidate SendOwl links because of that price hike.

I'm still bitter about not being able to reset my Test Drive Unlimited install count online just because I have updated my computer and transferred the whole Windows installation to the new system back in the day.

There are not many ways to battle the entropy of the universe.

> I can’t recall a time I’ve encountered an issue that was the fault of Valve versus a developer or publisher.

Does it really matter if it's developer/publisher removing the game from Steam, not Valve? The end result is the same: one can't play.

Correct. And if steam ever retracts anything, I’ll pirate the game then with a clean conscience.