Originally posted by Sugram22:

its easy steam needs to open psychical store around the world, slowly, where ppl can buy gift cards with cash/psychical money, then later steam can tell Visa And Master Card u can F off we don't need u anymore so do ur worst, u can no longer dictate what we sell and don't sell, so if u want to take ur services away from us go ahead, cause ppl new use cash :D

So steam just needs to create their own chain of mini-marts to sell gift cards to buy their [s]dirty magazines[/s] pornographic computer games....of course, because that makes sense. Just buy millions of plots of land and hire millions of employees....

Steam's whole business model relies on doing as little as possible.

Anyway, steam does sell gift cards in physical stores (for now).

Here's a list of where to buy: https://steamhost.cn/help_steampowered_com/en/faqs/view/5BB2-E986-A733-CF0E

I agree this could a good solution as well

Originally posted by Chronocide:

Originally posted by Sugram22:

its easy steam needs to open psychical store around the world, slowly, where ppl can buy gift cards with cash/psychical money, then later steam can tell Visa And Master Card u can F off we don't need u anymore so do ur worst, u can no longer dictate what we sell and don't sell, so if u want to take ur services away from us go ahead, cause ppl new use cash :D

So steam just needs to create their own chain of mini-marts to sell gift cards

that's what i mean, stores owned by steam

Everyone thinks their ideas are simple.

Originally posted by Sugram22:

Originally posted by Chronocide:

So steam just needs to create their own chain of mini-marts to sell gift cards

that's what i mean, stores owned by steam

I love how powerful you think steam is. But like seriously, steam is a small company compared to like 7-eleven....

Sue them for Tort and/or lobby for banking proteciotn laws. Hell, put in formal support and front page news for the fair banking act. that be a start in protect themselves. Be citizens like the rest of us

No offense but its a horrible idea. For one they would need hundreds of thousands of stores all over the world employing millions of people. So they'd be paying The costs would outweigh any benefits.

I mean heck, assume just 100,000 stores which is vastly under what they would need, then assume 30k a year for a single employee (which again is vastly under what is needed) that would be $3 billion a year. Your idea would cost them many times their total revenue and bankrupt them. That isn't even counting other expenses such as the manufacturing of the cards, distribution, rent, multiple employee's per store, etc

Not to mention most people don't want to have to drive to a store to get a card when they want to buy something.

Originally posted by Sugram22:

Originally posted by Chronocide:

So steam just needs to create their own chain of mini-marts to sell gift cards

that's what i mean, stores owned by steam

So just buy or lease thousands, tens of thousands plots of land, build stores, stock shelves, hire employees. Quite a lot of overhead there... all for games that probably don't make up a significant portion of Valve's revenue.

I can't imagine why that will never happen.

What about just getting steam Gift Cards in more stores?

Or we ca npetition the government to make Visa and MasterCard; Common Carriers which would force them to treat every transaction equally and prevent them from blocking legal transactions.

This issue is not isolated.

What really needs to happen is enormous and widespread push back against increasing digitization and sure the irony of Steam being a digital distribution platform is not lost on me but there is a balance to be struck between convenience and privacy, it has been tilting in the favor of convenience for much too long now and people are only just now beginning to realize what it's costing them both directly and indirectly and if the situation is ♥♥♥♥♥♥ now, just you wait because it's about to get a whole lot worse.

Simply put, we're all headed towards global tokenization and you will be able to opt in but you will not be able to opt out so start making changes in your life that run counter to this, even little ones because once cold hard cash is gone, on a societal level, you're ♥♥♥♥♥♥.

Originally posted by Chronocide:

Originally posted by Sugram22:

that's what i mean, stores owned by steam

I love how powerful you think steam is. But like seriously, steam is a small company compared to like 7-eleven....

i said slowly, it takes time but eventually they have enough store, even if it takes 5y-10y

Originally posted by Draug:

What about just getting steam Gift Cards in more stores?

maybe but then visa/master start to tell the stores, if u sell steam gift cards we will stop our services with u, and ordinary store would bend the knee fast

Originally posted by Sugram22:

Originally posted by Chronocide:

I love how powerful you think steam is. But like seriously, steam is a small company compared to like 7-eleven....

i said slowly, it takes time but eventually they have enough store, even if it takes 5y-10y

Except to get enough stores to cover all their customers would cost more money in Rent and Salaries then they make. Its not feasible for them to have a store for a single item. Not to mention those stores wouldn't be allowed to take Visa or MC to pay for the purchases, so you have the exact same issue.

That's also ignoring the fact that people don't want to drive to buy a card to buy a game online. Its far more cost effective to do what they did and prune the games which had very few sales anyways.

Originally posted by Sugram22:

Originally posted by Chronocide:

I love how powerful you think steam is. But like seriously, steam is a small company compared to like 7-eleven....

i said slowly, it takes time but eventually they have enough store, even if it takes 5y-10y

The problem is remote gamers, you will never be able to place a profitable store within easy access of everyone.

Originally posted by Sugram22:

its easy steam needs to open psychical store around the world, slowly, where ppl can buy gift cards with cash/psychical money

You know that such cards already exist, right?

And, like all cards of that kind, they are extremely annoying and not available everywhere. When I buy a game, I just buy it online, paying EXACTLY the amount that's needed. No leftover credit.
Also, I don't need to go or even drive to a store somewhere; I can just buy the game with no preparation whatsoever.

Btw, if Steam wanted to open shops (which is very expensive and difficult to get profitable), they could also sell the games there.