STEAM GIFTING CHANGES; Can't Store Gift to Inventory???

[bu11etpr00f]

I like being able to purchase games when they are on sale and store them in my Inventory in order to add them to my kids account at random times; like for special rewards, birthday gifts, etc.

I really hope this isn't something Valve is going to stick with. I've been a customer for years and have hundreds of games in my Library. I guess I may have to start buying all my games from another DRM Free Provider... :/

[Kentucky Jelly]

Well damn. Went to pop a handful games to my inventory for later gifting and man...missed that it was removed. Scheduling is a lame replacement (what happens if they buy it between now and then? Am I refunded?). Quite a few times games that were in my inventory ended up being played/owned by people I'm not currently friends with (friends children, for example, that got a computer for a birthday/Christmas/etc).

This is lame.

[Richard Upton Pickman]

3dfx님이 먼저 게시:

i have several steam accounts ive probably given steam well over a thousand dollars.. after discovering this today.. im not sure if i can continue buying games from them.. FFS we are paying you cash for copies of files.. and models / skins ect.. they diddnt even finish half life 2 FFS this company is garbage im done shoveling my money out for your greedy ass company is this xbox or PC...i for one miss going to the store and buying a game GETTING A BOX and a physical copy of the game.. and being able to play lan.. im tired of less features

Im in the same boat. I remember installing freelancer on two pc's in my home and would play it with friends during school break. In 10th class i was 100m away so whenever we could we sit down and played. These days with all the tech they have it should be easy to use splitscreen options or such features.

Yet there is more and more companies that limit installations via damaging tools like denuvo and such. As for valve its the most backwards company that could handle a platform like this. I mean they are the only company that puts on mods you can pay for without determing if and what rights someone has on them. They also had no quality control for that first failed attempt.

Not to mention that instead of at least hiring some people for each franchise they have that is multiplayer focused they work on what they want. Not that this idea isnt a joke either because the moment that goes against Gabes or anyone at valve who has a say they are fired. They once seemed like a great company but im glad i still have game boxes and use gog now. With the amount of features made worse or taken out i dont see why i should pay anything.

Ikhano님이 먼저 게시:

Well damn. Went to pop a handful games to my inventory for later gifting and man...missed that it was removed. Scheduling is a lame replacement (what happens if they buy it between now and then? Am I refunded?). Quite a few times games that were in my inventory ended up being played/owned by people I'm not currently friends with (friends children, for example, that got a computer for a birthday/Christmas/etc).

This is lame.

Key sellers would still work. So if you buy it outside steam you can write that one down or save it. That way there is no limit who can get the game or when.

[ootsby]

Ikhano님이 먼저 게시:

Scheduling is a lame replacement (what happens if they buy it between now and then? Am I refunded?).

The answer is that you can cancel the gift at any time before it is delivered/claimed and you'll be refunded. Gifts still go into your inventory and can be managed from there. You can also reschedule the gift. The only thing you can't do is reassign the gift to another user.

I agree that it's an annoying change for people who genuinely just like to buy games to gift to actual friends later. I'd like to be able to buy gifts without having to be Steam friends already for example. I don't, as a habit, learn that people like to play games and immediately ask them their Steam ID.

[Alien Bard]

ootsby님이 먼저 게시:

Ikhano님이 먼저 게시:

Scheduling is a lame replacement (what happens if they buy it between now and then? Am I refunded?).

The answer is that you can cancel the gift at any time before it is delivered/claimed and you'll be refunded. Gifts still go into your inventory and can be managed from there. You can also reschedule the gift. The only thing you can't do is reassign the gift to another user.

I agree that it's an annoying change for people who genuinely just like to buy games to gift to actual friends later. I'd like to be able to buy gifts without having to be Steam friends already for example. I don't, as a habit, learn that people like to play games and immediately ask them their Steam ID.

Likewise. I used to buy extra copies of coop games in case I wanted to invite a new friend to join me at a later time. I also have gifts in my inventory that I'm saving for my kids when they get older. And it's pretty clear I'm not the only one using the gifting system in this way. It's sad how many people assume there can be only one reason to store gifts.

Unfortunately, this change was probably based on some executive's unresearched personal opinion, and those kind of policies are notoriosly hard to get rid of. More than one company has gone bankrupt because an executive wouldn't admit to being wrong. I certainly hope Valve will reconsider this and do some research, but I'm not overly hopeful.

[REVER]

...

[Celeste (They/He)]

I only just found out about this because my friend group does Secret Santa with the steam gift system every year. The way we would do it is we would purchase gifts and send them to a designated person who would hold onto them until exchange day and then pass them out.

I guess Secret Santa isn't gonna be so secret this year :/

[ELF EYES]

a go to a place called humblebundle you pay what you want or full price and get three free games also a good place they send cd keys to you to e mail or right their in a pop up just right the cd key codes on papper but not know how long they stay for downloading the cd keys to account though

[MrL0G1C]

Dejay님이 먼저 게시:

I very rarely post, but this is a sad change Steam have made. Like bulletproof, I buy games and put them aside for Nephew presents. I just went to purchase Broforce and it has to be sent now or on selected dates to a selected person. So I found this thread when I tried to clarify.
It's silly because it's money I just won't spend now at Steam.

2nd this x10

[MrL0G1C]

There are still some steam gifts available on 3rd party sites like kinguin.

Valve says they did this because of cheaters, but those cheaters are only cheating on a small subset of steam games, they should of just restricted inventory gifts for that particular subset of games or at most, multiplayer games or just VAC protected games.

[Calculated Luck]

Well, this stupid change just stopped me from getting a few christmas gifts for a new friend I wanted to surprise this Christmas, its kinda ruined if I go "yeah, just open a steam account bro, leave your family for a moment, you just need this account"

Hopefully g2a or gog have some more customer friendly options.

[Calculated Luck]

why is steam cencoring names of competition? Petty. Did not even write the link.

Is steam and valve finally done being nice with its customers?

[MrL0G1C]

Calculated Luck님이 먼저 게시:

why is steam cencoring names of competition? Petty. Did not even write the link.

Is steam and valve finally done being nice with its customers?

That's automated, but the dozens of identical scam-spam that gets sent to groups - not dealt with automatically, it's infuriating. /sorry, off-topic

[Teksura]

Calculated Luck님이 먼저 게시:

Well, this stupid change just stopped me from getting a few christmas gifts for a new friend I wanted to surprise this Christmas, its kinda ruined if I go "yeah, just open a steam account bro, leave your family for a moment, you just need this account"

Wait, how exactly did you expect to gift them the Steam game before the change if they don't have a Steam account? Storing a gift in your inventory doesn't change the fact that they still need a Steam account to actually accept and use the gift.

[MrL0G1C]

Teksura님이 먼저 게시:

Calculated Luck님이 먼저 게시:

Well, this stupid change just stopped me from getting a few christmas gifts for a new friend I wanted to surprise this Christmas, its kinda ruined if I go "yeah, just open a steam account bro, leave your family for a moment, you just need this account"

Wait, how exactly did you expect to gift them the Steam game before the change if they don't have a Steam account? Storing a gift in your inventory doesn't change the fact that they still need a Steam account to actually accept and use the gift.

It's not hard to work out, he buys game now (whilst at a big discount), informs of gift on xmas day and says you'll need a steam account - on xmas day.

The alternative is to either not buy the game now, or give away the fact that they're getting a game for xmas.

[Teksura]

MrL0G1C님이 먼저 게시:

Teksura님이 먼저 게시:

Wait, how exactly did you expect to gift them the Steam game before the change if they don't have a Steam account? Storing a gift in your inventory doesn't change the fact that they still need a Steam account to actually accept and use the gift.

It's not hard to work out, he buys game now (whilst at a big discount), informs of gift on xmas day and says you'll need a steam account - on xmas day.

The alternative is to either not buy the game now, or give away the fact that they're getting a game for xmas.

You think his original plan was to buy the game, and then "kinda ruin Christmas" by going "yeah, just open a steam account bro, leave your family for a moment, you just need this account"?

I'm not seeing any difference. He's still in the same boat. Either way he has to make the other person make a Steam account before they can get their gift. And the Winter Sale doesn't even end until January 4, so we're talking about a period of more than a week to get the account made and send the gift.



I don't see any reason why he can't proceed exactly as he originally planned. Just tell them what you got them for Christmas on Christmas, and then gift it to them after they make the account. There is nothing stopping anyone from doing this. Don't stress about it, you're fine. The only thing you have to do different is buy the Gift after you tell them about it, not before. And really you don't even have to mention you haven't bought it yet. Just tell them that you got them this game to play but they need to make a Steam account before you can send it. Tell them they have to make it within the next week, and you'll help them with that after Christmas if they want. Then once they make the account, you can send them the gift. Easy. :)