This is why we can’t have nice things.
Valve will not renew its stock of physical gift cards for Steam. The gaming company predicts that the cards will be completely gone from retailer shelves by the end of 2026. In an update to one of its support pages, Valve explained that it was making this change in response to scammers.
Using gift cards to extract money from people has become a common enough trend that the Federal Trade Commission has an FAQ on the practice. In Valve’s case, it appears that the company’s increasing measures to combat gift card scams have come to an end.
“As we have continued to implement more and more restrictions, fraudsters have adapted,” Valve says of physical cards. “They continue to impact Steam customers and other unsuspecting people, so we have made the difficult decision to end the Steam Gift Card program in retail stores.”
It’s a shame to lose this option. I’ve definitely purchased a few over the years, just because it can be nice to have a little token to include with a card or something tangible to put in wrapping paper. Fortunately, Valve will still allow people to legally redeem any physical gift card in the wild, and will continue to support the digital side of its gift card business. So there will always be ways to easily add things to your friends and family’s Steam libraries. You just won’t be able to put a pretty bow on them.
