>This was a concern with early adopters of Steam, as well; and Valve made it clear that if Steam were to shut down that purchasers would have an opportunity to download their purchases.

I didn't realize this. I'm looking to build a pc in the coming months, and the fact that valve has a plan in place is comforting

Bear in mind this was the plan in 2004, when steam was still using that weird military green everywhere

> Of course, this was long before they sold ephemeral digital things

But by that point they had established themselves. They earned trust before selling things that required that trust.