For years, Valve’s physical Steam gift cards have been the closest you could come to buying a Steam game at a brick-and-mortar store. Now, Valve says it is phasing out the production of new retail gift cards, citing a losing battle against scammers exploiting the hard-to-track payment method.
PC Guide was among the first to note the end of Valve’s retail gift card program, which was quietly announced in a recent update to a Steam support page. Since launching the retail cards in 2012, Valve says it has been fighting a constant battle with scammers, who instruct victims to purchase gift cards and share the pertinent details and security PIN. Those scammers can then resell the gift card details at a discount on gray-market sites to effectively launder the funds, creating an anonymous and hard-to-trace form of payment.
Valve says it has made various moves to slow scammers, includingshare a pin via email, social media or over the phone.”
But the company now admits that “scammers have adapted” and “continue to have an impact on Steam customers and other unsuspecting individuals.” Rather than continue to fight against that “impact,” Valve writes that it has “made the difficult decision to end the Steam Gift Card program at retail stores.”
Steam users will still be able to redeem existing physical gift cards, and retailers will be able to sell physical gift cards that are already in stores. But Valve estimates that those existing stocks will be completely gone by the end of 2026 as it ceases new production.
<small>Source: Ars Technica</small>
