After the rumors, it's now official: Valve and Bitpay have partnered to bring Bitcoin as a payment method to Steam.

　　Director of Business Development, North America and APAC, Rory Desmond, announced it on the official website.

　　Today we're announcing a new payment integration with software and gaming giant Valve which will bring bitcoin payments to Steam gamers worldwide.

　　Founded in 1996, Valve's Steam platform is used by more than 89 million gamers. Steam reaches 237 countries, and its more than 9,000 different games include popular titles like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Civilization V, XCOM 2, and Fallout 4. Many of the award-winning titles were produced in-house at Valve, including Left 4 Dead, Half-Life, and Portal.

　　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 in these countries, traditional payment options like credit cards often aren't available. As the internet's universal currency, Bitcoin will allow Steam to easily reach gamers in every market around the world – without the high fees or the risk of chargeback fraud that come with card payments.

　　Whether they're hardcore gamers or first-time players, Steam's players deserve a faster, safer payment method. With Steam's bitcoin integration, customers will be able to use any bitcoin wallet to scan, pay, and get back to gaming in seconds without having to provide sensitive financial information.

　　Bitcoin has a bright future in gaming. We look forward to partnering with more gaming platforms to make bitcoin the most popular payment method for the world's gamers.

　　Ready to get started? Go buy yourself a game with bitcoin.

　　The last part is particularly interesting. It sounds like we can expect Bitcoin as a payment method for PlayStation and/or Xbox stores, too. We'll keep you posted in case any of this happens, of course; in the meantime, how do you feel about Steam adopting the digital currency? Let us know below.