Steam Digital Gift Cards Finally Launched

Celebrating the forthcoming holiday season, Steam has finally launched a much-requested feature - digital gift cards. The new arrival is aimed to let you directly contribute to a friend or family member's Steam Wallet by digitally adding funds. In India, the Steam Digital Gift Cards are available in certain denominations, starting from Rs. 320 and going up to Rs. 6,400.

Your friends and family members need to be on your friends' list on Steam for at least three days to let you send them digital gift cards. The recipients need to accept the gift to use the amount for purchasing games, micro-transactions or items off the Steam Community Market. Otherwise, the purchase will be refunded.

Steam has listed a total of five digital gift cards that are amounting Rs. 320, Rs. 640, Rs. 1,600, Rs. 3,200 and Rs. 6,400. The cards you purchased in India will automatically be converted into the currency accepted in the country your friend or family live. In the US, the Steam Digital Gift Cards are available in $5, $10, $25, $50, and $100.

You can pick a digital gift card by signing into your Steam account on its site, though the desktop app is yet to receive the feature. Moreover, you can add a personalised message to make the gift special for your loved ones.

It is worth noting that you have not been provided with the option to use your existing Steam Wallet funds to purchase a digital gift card. In the US, you can instead opt for PayPal or Bitcoin or use your Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover or JCB debit or credit cards to buy the gift cards digitally. In India, you can use Visa, Mastercard, Skrill, Cash on Delivery, Domestic Debit and Credit Cards, Netbanking, Domestic Prepaid Wallet, or Bitcoin to pay for a Steam Digital Gift Card.

The addition of Steam Digital Gift Cards comes ahead of some major annual sales that are set to hit the holiday season during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Also, the latest attempt by the digital distribution platform powered by Valve Corporation makes it a stronger competitor against platforms such as GOG and Twitch that both support online gifting among their communities.

In September, Steam updated user reviews on its platform with histograms to help users understand the evolution of a game with a graph of positive and negative reviews. That update gave developers and publishers an option to receive genuine feedback on their creations.