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> If you buy a game on steam, you own it for real.

How so? If Steam goes away, then so does your game. That's not ownership.

Just because they have carefully and honestly fostered a lot of trust in their game rental service, doesn't make it not a game rental service.

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If Steam itself goes bankrupt, Gabe himself said you'll still retain access to your games.1 Yes its a non-legally binding promise, but Steam has earned that trust.

Also Steam isn't going away, so for these reasons that is "how so".

1. https://web.archive.org/web/20100605062932/http://forums.ste...

If Steam itself goes bankrupt, that decision is not up to Steam, it's up to its creditors and the bankruptcy court. It's not a credible promise for any US corporation to make, regardless of its trustworthiness.

Ah cool, so an alleged promise made to one user makes it all OK and we should stop worrying and just buy more.

Even if Gaben "money drives the community" Newell did make that promise and was sincere, he's going to be gone in a couple of decades at most and likely not in control of Valve before that.

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