Arguably - games have no utility (is "pleasure" or "leisure" an utility?), therefore games have no value?

Why would utility necessarily be valued higher than non-utility?

Lack of physical definitely devalues the product for some people, yes. Also in the movie/TV arena the focus on subscriptions is rapidly devaluing purchases, which I expect to carry over to games now too. Also piracy got a lot of people used to spending a lot less on media, fair or not. Throw in deep cut Steam sales and a crowded market and you've got a recipe for it being REALLY tough to sell stuff for full price day one.

That said a lot of games still have success doing so, because they're quality games and get the right kind of press and social media coverage. So it makes it harder to sell at a high price, but far from impossible.

the quote above

There's the quote. Why did you ignore the second part (in bold)?

because fun....

"value" is personal, and no quote can do anything about it. therefor any devaluing is purely based on personal perceptions and... only important to the person in question.

ergo - the answer to this thread is "Yes", "No", "Maybe", "Perhaps" depending on who you ask

Well, I did manage to write a bit more than that. Yes it's subjective - after a few posts posts it became clear that that was the purpose of this topic; to share your own personal views about it. Clearly for you it's "yes/no/maybe, but I just want to make fun of it". And that's fine - the comedic value of your posts are also subjective/personal. ;-P

I don't think it's the most fair thing ever but in The World of Today™ your luxury consumer software is worth exactly as much as people are willing to pay for it and your competition is infinite illicit digital duplications. Adjust expectations accordingly.

Like averything else, Digital Distriubtion has an up side and a down side. The Down side is it makes it easier to put out a lot of crap "shovelware" games since you don't have to worry about the costs of physical distribution and fight for shelf space.
it's a fun discussion, but sort of usless. Digital Distribution is here to stay,period.

idk about that, though. there'll soon be a real push for subscription based cloud computing where the actual game files aren't stored on your hardware. eventually, there'll be some killer app on some platform or another that all the cool kids will be wild about. this is just speculation, but there could be real potential for the next generation of consoles and consolized computers to result in a lot of lost media. hopefully all the propietary streaming platform mania that all the old media dinosaurs and megaconglomerates are super into right now is just another lame fad, but I guess we'll have to wait and see. the 2020's should be wild, man.

The old media was doomed to be lost until digital distribution came along. Ancient hardware will fail eventually, too.

Also, I see no reason to think that the rise of subscriptions spells the end of "owning" your digital copy. The rise of Netflix did not spell the end of people buying even physical DVDs and BluRays.

yeah, these are all fair points! I guess I'm just really curious about what the next decade brings to the dance of death between IP law, archival, owernship, piracy, consumer rights and DRM faced with bleeding edge technology and societal change. a cynical part of me says it's all a lost cause, but an even bigger, meaner cynical part of me says my life will be largely unaffected.

Not available to new customers you mean - that's not the same as "lost". Making backups has always been possible.
And there are emulators for ancient hardware, VMs, or backward compatible OS software running on new hardware.

The rise of email didn't stop people from writing letters (pen&paper). When did you last get one?
Do all (video) media get a physical release these days? And if not, do you think there'll be more or less in the future?

It's hard not to see a certain precedent repeated in the future. The PC physical releases (and far from all games get them) have been very minimal in the last decade. Very few games get anything more than a standard DVD box, most of those don't even contain any printed booklets anymore. Codes in a box are often replacing the discs.
Ok, this transition even started before Steam - but I'm sure the rise of digital distribution only made it worse.

I'm glad the internet made niche markets viable - but I'm not going to pretend that things'll always stay the same.

I think you misunderstand me a bit.

Ancient media will fail. It happened (and is still happening) with film. It has happened to a big extent with video tape. It is happening with Digital Audio Tape (DAT). Old cds are losing their data. Governments and militaries can't transfer their old archives to new technologies fast enough, and ancient papers in files crumble with age, get destroyed in a flood, get lost or mislabeled...

I'm not saying it's a good thing, just that it is fact. And it's not as bad as some people make it out to be. We lost the library at Alexandria, and that's too bad. But we produce new stuff at a far greater rate than we can store up the old. It's kind of a shame, but not really.

So, losing old media because of new technology and new markets is nothing new.

Also, to email-snail mail: Snail mail does still exist and will continue to, because it has some qualities that email lacks. It's more of a niche market, but it won't die out. Likewise, physical copies of games with manuals, maps, etc., have become a niche market. So has vinyl records. Cassette tapes are currently trying to make a niche comeback.

BUT, there is still no indication that the rise of subscriptions will do the same to buying a digital library of games. They both seem to be able to exist in a growing market space.

We shall see.

I very much subscribe to the belief that for $60 I should be able to play the game when ever I want as long as I have the hardware to run it. Considering that I can do exactly that with a $20 book, movie, or music CD and some of the stuff the video game industry has pulled I think I am being exceptionally generous in my view.

Most distribution services force you to install from the server. If that server ever goes away (and yes i know it won't happen any time soon) that is the end of your game. So yes, digital distribution does degrade the value of the product.

With places like Steam I'm willing to wait years for it to go on deeply on sale before buying it.