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A rare steam gift cards are still in the wild
(programming.dev)
Thank you rural gas stations
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this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2026
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Steam Hardware
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I guess the codes on these physical gift cards will remain active, but just no new ones will be produced and distributed?
In 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... Edit: Reduced noise.
More information directly from Valve: https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/78E3-7431-1E88-AD59#retailers
Can I purchase Steam Gift Cards at retailers?
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
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.
My lemming on the internet, prepaid debit cards have been a thing for multiple decades and are perfect for anonymous purchases online at any storefront. You don't need explicitly Valve-endorsed cards.
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)
The retail pre-paid debit cards can be bought with cash at various convenience stores, at least in the US. Growing up I used to use them before I had a bank account.
There is no name attached. Just the payment method at initial purchase (which can be done with cash).
I'm not from the US.
Those aren't available everywhere and require you to show your ID in a lot of places. They're not a direct replacement of steam gift cards, even though, as you said, they may work in some places.
You can still buy your kids a digital steam gift card like you’ve always been able to for years. https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/669497052089025105
I don't think this is your decision what I need. I don't need your endorsement to use what I want.
Huh. I was wondering what this was about. Guess I'm out of the loop.
They're just slips of paper worth nothing until activated, so I don't expect them to keep thee service alive for too long.
There's nothing to keep alive. It's just a limited quantity of codes to keep track of.
If you buy a Steam game key it'll activate without issues even years later.
The codes don't expire once activated, but they can drop activation of unsold cards.
Steam still lets you download games you bought that are not even on sale anymore, they never delete them even a decade after delisting from the store.
Hosting this content costs real money.
What makes you think they'd invalidate codes that cost them basically nothing?
What they are trying to say is Steam gift cards might not be able to be activated by physical stores (e.g. convenience market) at some point in time. Physical stores might stop selling them even if they still have them. Almost any stores will run out of cards way before this happens.
Edit: Valve might still support activating them, but the stores software might drop support after a few years (or months, idk).
As you said: Once activated gift cards will likely be able to be activated for a few years, at the very least (legal requirement), likely longer.
Edit 2: Obviously there's no real reason to care about this. If you need physical gift cards, buy them now.
Taking purchased items away from customers is absolutely not comparable to throwing away cards they haven't sold.
Having stores activate the card on purchase is extra infrastructure, even if it isn't much. I think most of the remaining stock will be sold soon, so there isn't much point in keeping it up forever. Someone will eventually find dusty cards hidden in a forgotten corner of a remote convenience store, but that might not be worth even a small cost.