Not in a sto’ no mo’
The end of physical gift cards effectively severs Valve’s last link to the old brick-and-mortar retail world that Steam so effectively killed across the PC gaming landscape. When Steam was announced in 2002, Valve’s Gabe Newell sold it as a way to get around those annoying retailers altogether, “eliminating the overhead of physical goods distribution” and “leverag[ing] the efficiency of broadband to improve customer service and increase operating margins.”
Over two decades later, though, Valve says there’s still a huge legitimate market for physical Steam gift cards, which are the most direct way for gamers to convert physical cash into digital PC games. In early 2024, Valve reported that it had tallied up $80 million in physical gift card redemptions during just the last 11 days of 2023.
That’s a significant market even for a multi-billion-dollar company like Valve, and one that Valve said has been a “massive benefit to developers.” At the same time, Valve wrote in 2024 that “physical cards are some of the most expensive payment methods we support,” no doubt thanks to the overhead associated with printing/shipping and support time devoted to dealing with scammed customers.
So while Valve will miss the significant revenue it derives from physical gift cards each year, it will probably welcome the opportunity to finally be able to completely ignore the retail market. Customers, meanwhile, will still be able to purchase digital gift cards directly from Valve or add Steam funds via some prepaid debit cards available at retail (as long as there’s an address attached).
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