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this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2025
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The short term strategy would probably be to introduce Y payment processor and make it the preferred method of payment. Encourage it's use industry wide and encourage consumers to adopt that method as widely as possible.
If that takes off... Then they can tell the other processors to get fucked.
Changing payment processors/engaging a new one is anything but a short term thing to implement. Otherwise Mastercard and Visa wouldn't be in this situation to have this level of control to begin with.
If 50 Cent could sell album for crypto from his nothing website a decade ago I feel like Valve has the technical wherewithal to implement one of 1,000 preexisting checkout solutions in the short term.
I think selling steam giftcards (an existing solution they're already using) at a markdown to expand that business would be pretty viable for a company that regularly marks their products down by up to 90%.
They could literally do both of these almost instantly as preferred options while still accepting the big cards.
Some additional context to my previous comment: I work tech in the financial industry. I have some experience with payment processors and the stupid amount of bullshit around all this stuff. "They could do both of these things almost instantly" is a big assumption holding the entirety of the weight for your argument.
Anyway.
50 Cent was doing a one off publicity stunt, not trying to ensure continued existence as a company. How many mainstream artists are still doing that? I shouldn't have to say that this is very much an apples and oranges comparison.
Your other idea has legs, but it's still suggesting that Valve try entering a game of financial chicken with Visa and Mastercard. Effectively infinite money. And in the meantime most users would just be pissed off at Valve for making it harder to buy anything. We're already seeing people attack itch.io for not standing up instead of bei g pissed at the payment processors.
Valve can't make purchasing through a different processor a requirement for some games but not others because Visa and Mastercard said "stop selling games with this content entirely, or we stop processing your transactions entirely". So anything they do will have to effect all transactions.
I'm frustrated Valve didn't do more, and that they've not made any public statements about trying to fight this, but Valve isn't just leaving money on the table because they're lazy or dumb.
So you have a pair of strawmen there.
If that off the cuff, apples to oranges, example is too silly by a third, how about the entire US canibus industry? They've been prohibited from using the federal banking system and seem to be making ends meet alright.
If you work in the space then you know they're going to have more and better solutions down the line. The EU is looking for solutions to circumvent the big US processors. Alipay and WeChat pay can already circumvent US credit card processors, and have made significant inroads in the US.
I AM taking the position that unless they do something... Anything... A first turn out of the driveway to be 10% less dependent on alternative means of payment processing, there will never be a path to being 100% free from coersion.
They could be doing things today and right now it doesn't look like they are.
Valve is estimated to be a multi billion dollar organization with a per head profit of 3.5 million. They have an extremely captive audience that's deeply financially invested in the platform and would jump through a lot of hoops to keep using it. Pretending they're helpless and shouldn't be troubled to start steering in a pro-consumer direction just because they don't have a 100% solution today is defeatist bullshit.