2w ago

Steam payment headaches grow as PayPal is no longer usable for much of the world: Valve hopes to bring it back in the future, 'but the timeline is uncertain'

www.pcgamer.com Steam payment headaches grow as PayPal is no longer usable for much of the world: Valve hopes to bring it back in the future, 'but the timeline is uncertain'

The problem first came to light about a month ago, but Valve has only now offered an explanation.

Steam payment headaches grow as PayPal is no longer usable for much of the world: Valve hopes to bring it back in the future, 'but the timeline is uncertain'

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231 comments

If digital payments are becoming a service problem, Steam might develop their own.
- I actually think ramping up their gift card distribution to more countries might be more effective imo, since people have access to cash or payment systems at physical stores.
  
  Tbh I could not be arsed to go somewhere to buy a gift card to then use it. I'm more likely to use another platform to buy a game.
  It’s not that I don’t have values. I just don’t feel strongly enough about using Steam to make that trip just for a gift card.
  Digital gift cards would be okay though.
  
  That's fair. The ball is in Paypal's court anyway, but I guess digital/prepaid gift cards could also be on the table as well.
  
  you don't have to make a trip just for that. you can just visit the shop next time you're nearby.
  
  Of course, but that would mean delaying a purchase by a day or more
  
  Not if you buy a gift card before you find a game you want
  
  Digital gift cards would be okay though.
  They already exist
  
  Gift cards are an obvious way to bypass regional pricing, so a low-income country like mine could get more harm than good (as in fraud increases and the storefront gives up ın regional pricing from that point on).
  Also, when convenience of online shopping is lost, why would I bother wearing my shoes and get out to sun to purchase a gift card, while I can buy a physical copy of the game instead?
  
  For a lot of games, especially games with low budgets that don't make physical distribution possible (most indies on PC), they're reliant on digital distribution, and Steam is the place for the majority of PC gamers to obtain their library. Also generally speaking for PC, physical distribution (apart from pirated files and niche scenarios), is basically already dead.
  As for the regional pricing issue, Steam/Valve already looks at IP and regional activity (say a NA user temporarily VPN's into Ukraine for a cheap price and then kills the VPN and plays from an NA ip afterwards) to flag accounts and restrict them from purchasing games in the future or gifting them to others. Because of that, I don't think an increased volume of gift cards would be the issue (stolen credit cards are far more of a headache for Valve).
  
  do they still make physical copies? if so, I'm pretty sure most indie developers cannot afford that..
- I wonder if this will just make them return bitcoin as an option to pay. It's been 8 years since they dropped it and it has fewer large fluctuations now, it seems.
  
  and it has fewer large fluctuations now, it seems.
  106 to 76 to 120 in the last four months is not large fluctuation? 30 % variance is quite high to me.
  
  There are better cryptocurrency options to Bitcoin now, including stabletokens that are specifically designed for this purpose. Hopefully they go to one of those instead.
  
  I don’t understand why people first think of memecoins when there are a few stablecoins like USDT or USDC?
  
  Because the "have fun being poor (as I gamble my life savings on a website with pump and dump basically in the name)" crowd outnumbers and is much louder than the "I am using this decentralized currency because authoritarians will inevitably strangle anything with a single point of control" crowd.
  
  Branding and public image is a large part of currency circulation, as far as I'm aware. My first impression and instinctual thoughts on cryptocurrencies as a whole are vehicles for money-laundering and general fraud, even if there are examples to the contrary.
  Same reason why the Russian ruble or the Chinese Yuan aren't generally used as foreign reserve currencies for the majority of nations - too volatile, and histories of manipulation.
  
  isn't USDT tether, which is completely unbacked?
  
  it's also not always easy to buy those. nobody wants to use cryptocurrency unless it is easy to get cryptocurrency
  
  I was gifted crypto from two crypto projects for my (crypto-unrelated) open source work. It was a baffling hassle to pay out. Over multiple conversions and significant gas fees and waiting for hours for a transaction and having to juggle wallets and exchange platform service… yeah. From my experience, cryptocurrencies are not feasible for normal, regular payments.
  There's no better payment infrastructure for USDT than for €. It adds additional concerns and technical complexities.
  
  Yeah it's an enormous pain in the ass. I don't bother anymore
  
  It still fluctuates a lot. If they were going to accept bitcoin I as a game developer would want them to get it into something a bit harder almost instantly. I don't want it staying in bitcoin here it can lose its value, for no reason at all, at the drop of a hat. Under the current system steam tend to hold on to money until the end of the month and then pay you, that wouldn't work with bitcoin.
  
  Bitcoin cash maybe as it's not limited to a small block size, but as others have said, there are probably better options out there now.
  
  BCH has been dead for years (even if it doesn't know if yet)

231 comments