[meheleventyone]

The reason for that is that the game is continuing to be distributed and the nature of digital distribution is ephemeral so contents like music are removed from the distribution when the license expires. If you own the game on physical media or remove the connection to the digital distribution service (never patch it) then as a consumer you’re fine as you note with the first sale doctrine. It’s just legally the developer can no longer offer the content as part of future distributions. The same would be true for another physical media release.

[chithanh]

That is not how it works. When car licenses expire then you can still download the racing games in your library from Steam etc., even after new sales are discontinued. You are already the owner of the licensed content and you get access to it anytime.

Steam even says that in the event of that they go out of business, measures are in place to ensure gamers' continued access to their games.

[ryandrake]

I don't think anyone is asking for developers to continue to distribute their games after they EOL them. They're just asking for a way to keep games that have already been distributed running.