Damn, I love things physical. Makes it nice for gifts and everything. Hate that scammers ruined this
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video games are not physical
A physical card means you can hand your loved one something they can hold. Even if its just a redemption code
I'm talking about the physical gift cards
Well rip, this was how I would buy games on steam with cash bc my mom wouldn't let me use her credit card.
I'm guessing they don't want to pay the costs of the fraud.
Still it's a shame for children and the under-banked parts of the working class who are struggling. Anyone without a credit/debit card now in the US at least has to pay a 3 - 14% tax ($5-$7 per card activation fee) for a $50 to $200 gift credit/debit card to load up steam instead which is a pretty significant hit.
Bad for anonymity too. Anyone who wanted to maintain an anonymous Steam account is going to be out of luck as I suspect even those gift credit cards are likely going to require identity verification or face scans within a couple years before you can use them.
That's a shame, these were a fun, cheap and useful gift. Gotten them myself a few times from relatives who wanted to give me something useful instead of cheap crap or just money. Giving someone an IOU for Steam credits is a bit lame. And if you purchase them in advance, they get an e-mail and already know what the gift is.
But they are right, all kinds of gift cards are used by scammers. DO NOT REDEEM!
To me this was the only way I purchased games on Steam and even Steam hardware like the controllers (old and new) and the Steam Deck itself. This is a huge big hit to me personally.
Why tho? You can just purchase from Steam directly?
OP likely doesn’t want to have/share credit card information. A gift card can be purchased with cash IRL.
debit cards exist too..
OP likely doesn’t want to have/share debit card information.
we never even had them in the first place in the third world so well, i won't miss them i guess