Okay, so here’s a weird thing—I tried buying a game on Steam and couldn’t find PayPal anywhere. It’s like, where did it go? Spoiler: It’s not a glitch. Nope, it’s more drama with Steam and the big bosses at Visa and Mastercard. Why does this keep happening? Honestly, it’s anyone’s guess.
Valve spilled the beans to Rock Paper Shotgun, saying PayPal disappeared because of stuff they’re selling on Steam. Remember that whole Mastercard kerfuffle? Yep, same vibe.
Some bank PayPal uses just noped outta processing transactions on Steam. So yeah, PayPal got axed for a bunch of currencies. But here’s the kicker—PayPal works for me just fine. Maybe I’m one of the lucky ones, ’cause in July, EUR, CAD, GBP, JPY, AUD, and USD still work with PayPal. Feels like a lot of folks elsewhere might be pulling their hair out over this, though.
Here’s another twist: PayPal isn’t just running ’cause of Steam’s crackdown on adult games. That drama came from payment processors and this group, Collective Shout—yeah, they went after games like Grand Theft Auto. Super wild, right? Processors claim they don’t dictate legality to vendors, but Valve hints banks are whispering sweet nothings—telling them what to offload. It’s like a game of telephone with a side of censorship paranoia.
This hullabaloo isn’t just punking Steam; Itchio and others got caught in the crossfire too. Ugh, can we even talk about how much pressure there is now on age-verifying for websites like YouTube and Pornhub? Like, when did being online become so ID-driven and complicated? Sci-fi level stuff, if you ask me.
Valve says they’re trying to bring PayPal back for us all but, surprise, there’s no timeline. Meanwhile, they’re thinking about adding more payment modes. Got a Steam Wallet code? Might wanna grab one if you’re in payment limbo.
Whew. What a mess!
