Huh. I was wondering what this was about. Guess I’m out of the loop.
Comment on A rare steam gift cards are still in the wild
thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 3 hours agoIn short, Valve is discontinuing physical Steam Gift Cards. They already stopped producing them and they expect the stock will run out at the end of 2026. I assume they talk about their own stock, so your shop may still have some even next year. One of the best things of Steam comes to an end…
More information directly from Valve:
help.steampowered.com/en/…/78E3-7431-1E88-AD59#re…
Can I purchase Steam Gift Cards at retailers?
Yes, but only for a limited time.
We introduced Steam Gift Cards to retail stores back in 2012, and added the digital program in 2017. Unfortunately, scammers use gift cards from major brands like Steam to take advantage of all people all over the world.
We’ve responded to gift card scams over the years by taking a number of actions to protect customers, including:
- Working with retailers
- Working with law enforcement
- Making changes to the cards, including adding a prominent scam warning
- Limiting redemption to be in the currency of your Steam wallet
- Limiting availability of cards
- Removing cards from sale when we observed abnormal activity
As we have continued to put more and more restrictions in place, scammers have adapted. They continue to have an impact on Steam customers and other unsuspecting individuals. So we’ve made the difficult decision to end the Steam Gift Card program at retail stores.
As Steam Gift Cards run out of stock at retail locations, we will not be restocking them. We expect all retailers to be out of stock by the end of 2026. Though we will no longer be selling physical gift cards, you will still have the ability to use your existing gift cards on Steam whenever you choose, subject to local laws.
We also continue to offer Steam Digital Gift Cards, and are working to make this an even better experience. Guest checkout, which we added last year, is another way for family members and friends to gift Steam users with a digital card anytime.
You can learn more about gift card scams here.
a_non_monotonic_function@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
Chronographs@lemmy.zip 2 hours ago
They’ve since improved their gifting stuff you can give people things without needing to know their account name or anything so it’s kind of whatever. So much scammed money goes through gift cards so I get it
thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 2 hours ago
It’s not whatever. Buying cards in a shop without having a bank account or credit card usage is a big deal. This was and currently is my main way of buying games in Steam. It is whatever to you maybe, but not to me.
Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone 16 minutes ago
My lemming on the internet, prepaid debit cards have been a thing for multiple decades and are perfect for anonymous purchases online at any store. You don’t need explicitly Valve-endorsed cards.
black0ut@pawb.social 3 minutes ago
Pre-paid debit cards aren’t a solution for many people. Not only they depend on your bank or a third party service that may even charge for them, but they’re more traceable than buying stuff on a store. Some people don’t even have a bank account, like kids, who now will need to ask their parents to pay for every game individually (or have unrestricted access to their parents card)