Overview
- Valve updated its Steam support FAQ on June 10, 2026 to say it will stop supplying physical Steam Gift Cards to retailers and will not restock them once current stock sells through.
- The company expects retail supplies to run out by the end of 2026 but says any existing physical cards will remain redeemable with no new expiration date.
- Valve cites persistent gift-card scams — including coercing victims to buy prepaid codes and thieves selling codes for cash — and notes past measures like warnings, regional limits, and law-enforcement cooperation failed as criminals adapted.
- Digital Steam Gift Cards will continue to be sold through the Steam storefront and are tied to accounts, which Valve says makes fraud easier to trace and respond to while it works to improve the digital gifting experience.
- The change removes an easy cash-to-digital route used by scammers, but will complicate gifting for people without accounts or credit cards and will hit retailers and payment volumes that relied on physical prepaid cards.