DO NOT REDEEM
Those nexon cards are also no longer a thing!
Are they gonna stop creating them?
Yeah. Few months ago they put out a thingy about how steam gift cards were used too much for scamming rather than legitimate use.
Which was bs excuse cuz digital gift cards still exist. Clearly, manufacturing the card and letting the store make a small profit when selling it was too expensive. But yeah, steam gift cards are no longer manufactured and missing from any store near me.
I think they got rid of digital gift cards as well, except through steam, where it has to be gifted to another account.
My understanding is that there were 3 mains scams that abused gift cards (steam and otherwise)
A scammer would coerce a victim to buy gift cards and give the info to them. This usually targeted the elderly, and the scammer would often impersonate the IRS/police/etc, claiming they (or their family members) were in legal trouble/facing arrest, and offer to make it go away if they bought the gift cards. Since it usually targeted people who aren't tech-savvy, they would usually buy these gift cards locally. Banks won't refund this one because the victim made the purchase themselves.
Tampering with cards in a store. People would record pin numbers off cards in the store, put a new scratch sticker over them, and then use bots to try to constantly redeem the card. As soon as someone buys it, the bot redeems the gift card immediately before the buyer can get home and redeem it themselves. Another version of this involves stealing unactivated cards, and swapping their barcode/packaging with cards still in the store. When someone buys it, it activates the stolen card instead of the physical card the buyer has.
Using stolen credit card details to buy a bunch of gift cards from online retailers. They then immediately try to resell these gift cards for less than the card is worth (ie selling a $50 steam gift card for $30-40). The catch here is that they have a limited amount of time to sell the cards before the original credit card gets reported stolen, and the cards get cancelled. The users who buy and redeem these stolen gift cards can get their accounts automatically banned, which is another layer of support headaches for Steam to deal with (if they buyers were innocent and didn't realize the cards were stolen).
The 3rd scam can use digital gift cards, but the other two are usually physical only scams, so getting rid of physical gift cards at retailers will eliminate most of them. The 3rd is much less effective and much easier to trace/undo if the digital gift cards have to be purchased through steam and sent directly to users there.
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?
Can I purchase Steam Gift Cards at retailers?
Yes, but only for a limited time.
We introduced Steam Gift Cards to retail stores back in 2012, and added the digital program in 2017. Unfortunately, scammers use gift cards from major brands like Steam to take advantage of all people all over the world.
We’ve responded to gift card scams over the years by taking a number of actions to protect customers, including:
- Working with retailers
- Working with law enforcement
- Making changes to the cards, including adding a prominent scam warning
- Limiting redemption to be in the currency of your Steam wallet
- Limiting availability of cards
- Removing cards from sale when we observed abnormal activity
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 Steam Gift Cards run out of stock at retail locations, we will not be restocking them. We expect all retailers to be out of stock by the end of 2026. Though we will no longer be selling physical gift cards, you will still have the ability to use your existing gift cards on Steam whenever you choose, subject to local laws.
We also continue to offer Steam Digital Gift Cards, and are working to make this an even better experience. Guest checkout, which we added last year, is another way for family members and friends to gift Steam users with a digital card anytime.
You can learn more about gift card scams here.
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).
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 don’t need explicitly Valve-endorsed cards.
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?
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.
Taking purchased items away from customers is absolutely not comparable to throwing away cards they haven't sold.
What makes you think they'd invalidate codes that cost them basically nothing?
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.
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.
Here in Berlin, Germany they aren't rare yet. Currently I'm purchasing them from time to time before they completely vanish.
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