Gaming and digital distribution platform Steam will now accept bitcoin payments from users around the world, a feature enabled by bitcoin payment processor BitPay.
After whispers, rumors, and leaks that leads to the inevitable inclusion of a global currency for a global marketplace, Valve’s Steam, the biggest PC gaming platform and distributor in the world with some 125 million active users (2015 stats ), has now started accepting bitcoin as a mode of payment.
The announcement was made by BitPay, the payment processor who will enable bitcoin payments for Steam. BitPay revealed that Valve, the company operating Steam, approached BitPay to find a seamless payment solution in newer markets with a low credit card penetration, around the world.
BitPay stated:
Valve reached out to us because they were looking for a fast, international payment method for Steam users in emerging gaming markets in countries like India, China and Brazil. While more users are coming online in these countries, traditional payment options like credit cards often aren’t available.
“Bitcoin will also steam to easily reach gamers in every market around the world, BitPay stated, before adding,” without the high fees or risk of chargeback fraud that comes with card payments.”
The paid games market within the Steam store alone is estimated to be worth over $3.5 billion and that figure does not include downloadable content which brings in extra revenue. The worldwide core PC games market is estimated to be worth around $27 billion.
The announcement comes after a recent leak last week which showed an announcement in Steam’s private developer forums which informed developers that Steam will be accepting payments via bitcoin. An early leak from February suggested that bitcoin was indeed coming to steam as a mode of payment after new translation strings in Steam’s translation server pointed to the cryptocurrency’s inclusion.
Images from Steam and Youtube.
