this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2025
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Then people would have to get specific cards or crypto or whatever that aren't Visa/MasterCard in order to buy Steam games. That, of course, is if you can get banks to agree to carry "Steam cards". Either that, or everyone would need to buy Steam gift cards as an exclusive form of payment.
All of these are much less convenient than keeping your existing debit/credit card to pay for Steam games, and less convenience means less sales.
They would have to roughly make their own form of PayPal, alongside their own bank.
If you didn't know, PayPal technically isn't a bank, it and Venmo use Synchrony Bank... which is an actual bank.
If they did something like that, it could work, but it would have to be at a similar scale as PayPal, that is to say, massive....
Because doing this would/could basically be the nuclear option:
MC and Visa and PayPal would/could drop them.
So, they'd have to basically develop a massive project, in total secrecy.
... Which is something Valve has arguably done a number of times, they are notoriously opaque as a company.
......
Sort of as you mention, they already have a barebones backend framework to scale up from the steam gift card / user gift card balance system.
I am... uncertain if their backend for that already does or does not include an actual legally defined bank though.
...
Problem is that this would necessitate a massively costly undertaking, as well as ongoing maintenance costs, and Valve is also notorious for basically running on what most other firms would consider a skeleton crew for the size and scope of what they do.
Or you could just transfer funds to a steam card, then with that, but all you want.
Yeah, but SteamPay is the future
Steam does not have to only accept steampay. Tho? You fear visa and mastercard will blaclist steam?
Steam removed games because visa and mastercard threatened to blacklist it, so yeah. That's the whole point.