Steam now offering digital gift cards

Valve has finally started offering the ability for consumers to purchase digital Steam Gift Cards.

To do so, the sender must have a Steam account of their own – something that could actually be fairly limiting, as lots of mums and dads and especially grans and grandads may not have access to a Steam account.

After that it’s simply a process of choosing an amount (the Gift Cards are available in £4, £10, £25, £50 and £100 increments), selecting an account to send it to, choosing your funding method and clicking send.

Buyers are able to pay for the cards using credit/debit cards, PayPal and Bitcoin. Interestingly users are not able to pay using any funds in their Steam Wallet. There’s also not yet any sign of the feature being available via the desktop client, so those wanting to take advantage will have to log in via a browser.

Steam Gift Cards have been available physically for some time. They take the form of a code that people can redeem on their account to top up their Steam Wallet.

Their availability in the UK can be a little patchy. The Steam site still lists the now defunct GameStop UK as its sole stockiest, although shoppers at GAME can buy Wallet codes. The cards can also be found in some supermarkets. Other outlets such as PC World also offer them, and will even post them out to you.

The news comes as Steam prepares to kick off its Halloween sale later this very day. Look out for the discounts to kick in around 6pm… then for Steam to implode until around 8pm or 9pm.