So yes, there is a non-zero chance of some terrible catastrophe causing the games I paid for being lost forever - either needing a re-purchase, or simply becoming unplayable.

Here’s the trip: That is equally true for my disc-based games.

If I was an enthusiast collector, I might have an air-conditioned, sealed room from which I retrieve my Xbox discs using talcum-free latex gloves. I’m not. Because of that fact, any discs I own (none) are prone to constant wear and tear from the world around them. If they eventually break, it won’t be Microsoft’s fault, but it can happen.

So far, no game company has ever seen much profiteering in flipping a “Master death switch” that turns off access for tons of singleplayer games people paid for. At most, it happens for games that used some unnecessary live service, and were usually not well-loved anyway. And, unfortunately, it also happens to multiplayer games - because those games very much needed those servers for the features people liked about them, and usually only when the game is no longer popular (thus hard to find a match), and difficult for them to maintain those servers.

So I maintain my stance; that if I buy Deep Rock Galactic, I can be fairly sure it’ll be around 5 years from now when I still want to play it. 20 years later, I honestly may not even care; nor would I be sure any disc would still work either.