GameStop partners with digital competitor Valve, offers Steam codes in-store

U.S. retailer GameStop today announced a partnership with behemoth developer Valve, that sees the latter's Steam Wallet initiative made available in GameStop stores. Valve unveiled its Steam Wallet payment system for its Steam digital download service in 2010, as a means for users to buy funds usable to purchase games from the online store. Today's announcement means that GameStop customers can now purchase physical Steam Cards nationwide, which provide codes to add funds to a customer's Steam account. The cards currently come in $20 and $50 denominations. It's a notable move, given that last year GameStop bought Stardock's Impulse download service, a direct competitor to Valve's Steam platform. The company also made Valve's games available via Impulse earlier this year. GameStop has been coping with the game industry's digital shift over the course of the last year, most recently expanding its selection of PC download codes, bumping the total up to more than 1,500 PC games both new and old.