Games As A Service and Game Subscription services

Nope. I still prefer to own the games.

They've got to make you believe that by 'renting' you're getting a better deal than 'buying' even it is a very weak argument. Though I'm sure there will be people that will lap it up.

I'm not one of them, sorry EA you lose  

You don't really buy an online game. That is really just a service. When the servers go out - you own nothing and can't play it anymore.

At the moment, this also seems to be true for Steam games. Backups from shady internet corner then?

Is it possible to remove steam DRM?

Semamtics shmantix.

This isn't how it worked historically. Books aren't leased, they are either sold for purchase (bookstore) or leased as a rental item (library). It is that author's IP, yet you own a copy. Is there any dispute that you own that?

The trend to streaming services for TV and movies kinda underlines this. And games are kinda looking to get there too.

Oh? Can books be updated? Can they get DLCs? Can they get patches? I mean, lol - even if books get new editions, show me which publishing companies send those to you after you bought an outdated one?

Oh, that's right - virtually none do that because that's not how it works with books.

So no, games aren't books. Not even single player ones. Don't compare apples to oranges.

Yea, I don't want to sound facetious - I get that people are concerned that something they like will disappear if they don't have a hard copy... but the illusion of owning something disappears quickly once something bad starts happening to our copy. In case of games or programs it gets even more acute with each update to the software or hardware. Nevermind just the sheer number of games or movies or even books that flood our market every day - is it possible that at some point buying individual titles becomes just too expensive for regular people? Of course, the subscription model ain't something that is alien even to written publications, and the more serialized something is, the more sense it makes.

I have no idea what's the endpoint, because the way we consume media evolves together with our technology and sometimes it's hard where that'd go - who knew all those years ago that we'd be using our phones watch/read/play stuff, for example?

Though I do see society continually falling out of love with the notion of a. truly owning something or b. physical copies, the more Internet becomes prevalent.

I also see more and more industries heading towards the subscription model and the like... Heck, you can even subscribe to food services these days.

Lack of mtx or presence of only 'finished product' didn't stop game publishers or developers from crashing the market once already (flooding us with cheap crap was one of the main factors then). 

As if that didn't happen before? How many old games do really work on new computers, really? I mean, nevermind CD just not working anymore - the DRMs I've had on some CDs has prevented me from playing the games after I bought a new PC, even though games were perfectly legit and legally bought. Nothing has been done about it because the publisher didn't care. All I could do is buy another copy - but oh wait, there aren't really many of those after they cease printing them, aren't there? And how many publishers play the game of releasing limited game/versions or consoles just to keep the price artificially inflated (it's not just something that games do)?

Point is that bad practices have existed and will exist regardless of format and 'finished copies' aren't better in preventing those. 

This isn't just an issue of AAA games inventing new exploitative practices - we're looking at rethinking strategies of how to get to and stick with people and that includes indies and individual creators that oftentimes also utilize subscription/loyalty models of some kind these days. With the way the market is flooded these days with thirty zillion things at light speed pace as well as technological advancements that allow us to access things instantly/update them on short notice it's not surprising we're looking at a revolution.