Next time you walk into a store and browse the gift card section, you may notice something missing from the gaming section. Gamers and family of gamers might be disappointed to hear the recent news from Valve Corporation regarding Steam’s physical gift cards.
Gift cards have and will always be one of the safest options when it comes to gift giving. Companies like Nintendo, PlayStation, and Xbox all have physical gift cards on store shelves that are readily available to pick up before a birthday party or other event. Valve Corporation has taken the initiative to end their Steam physical gift cards, their reason being scams.
On the Steam website, they go into detail onto all the ways they have fought back against the alarming issue of scamming. Valve says they have done things to prevent scams, such as: limiting the availability of cards, limiting the redemption of currency for Steam wallets, including a “prominent scam warning” to cards, removing cards from sale that had suspicious activity, and even going as far as to work with retailers and law enforcement. Though they have worked tirelessly and tried various solutions, nothing has seemed to work to solve the issue, leading to the discontinuation of the item entirely.
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 gift cards are bought and shelves begin to empty, Valve will not be restocking; they are expecting that all cards available will be out of stock completely by the end of the year.
This is not the end of Steam gift cards, however. Valve has also stated they will simply be moving to digital gift cards, and they are working towards making these as easily accessible and purchasable as the physical ones for the ease of everyone.