Due to regional price differences, the gift you are trying to send cannot be sent to the recipient's region.

[Not An Evil Scientist]

Anyone else get this? I'm Canada and can't gift my friend in the US.

[Nova Prima]

Welcome to Steam's new gift restriction ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

Edit: Buy a key from the Humble Store, Green Man Gaming, Gamersgate, Indie Gala Store, Amazon or Gamesplanet. Check out isthereanydeal.com, it only lists legit sites.

[Ogami]

If the price difference between the two countries is more then 10% you can no longer send a gift.
Yes, it really is that stupid.

[Discussions_Acc]

You can surely find shop offering a Steam key somewhere. Very likely cheaper too.

[Radene]

Originally posted by Ogami:

If the price difference between the two countries is more then 10% you can no longer send a gift.
Yes, it really is that stupid.

That indeed is very stupid. It's like Finland deciding they won't let people buy booze in Estonia anymore.

[supergrunt3]

I was just trying to gift a friend in the US Tabletop Sim, and now can't. How is a cross currency difference of 19.99 US and 21.99 CAD a target for restriction?? That's just baffling.

[Jonno.exe]

Steam updated their Gift Policy. Read the update
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=1327-WUJX-5722

[Ogami]

Originally posted by supergrunt3:

I was just trying to gift a friend in the US Tabletop Sim, and now can't. How is a cross currency difference of 19.99 US and 21.99 CAD a target for restriction?? That's just baffling.

Its a 10% difference so you cant gift.

The biggest joke is this statement from Valve:

When there is a large difference in pricing between countries, gifting won't be available and you'll know before purchase.

So 2! bucks seem to be a " large difference" for Steam in your case. I mean poor Steam, cant expect them to lose TWO whole bucks in that transaction.
This whole new gift update is a joke.

My advice, buy a key for the game outside of Steam and just give that to your friend.
You will pay much less then on Steam, your friend will get the game and Steam will get nothing.
Its the only way they will learn.

[Lord Khyron]

Welcome to the new (worst) steam

[Spazfrag]

Originally posted by Lord Khyron:

Welcome to the new (worst) steam

Only the worst until the next change where valve do something else "for us". Coincidentally, making more money for themselves.

[Ogami]

Originally posted by Spazfrag:

Originally posted by Lord Khyron:

Welcome to the new (worst) steam

Only the worst until the next change where valve do something else "for us". Coincidentally, making more money for themselves.

I expect the next update will remove key activation. Then only authorized stores may sell Steam games and when you buy a game it will require some link with your Steam account for automatic activation.
That will eliminate the grey key market outside of Steam, raise game prices across the board and make the publishers very happy.

I honestly see them going in that direction.

[Chompman]

Originally posted by Ogami:

Originally posted by supergrunt3:

I was just trying to gift a friend in the US Tabletop Sim, and now can't. How is a cross currency difference of 19.99 US and 21.99 CAD a target for restriction?? That's just baffling.

Its a 10% difference so you cant gift.

The biggest joke is this statement from Valve:

When there is a large difference in pricing between countries, gifting won't be available and you'll know before purchase.

So 2! bucks seem to be a " large difference" for Steam in your case. I mean poor Steam, cant expect them to lose TWO whole bucks in that transaction.
This whole new gift update is a joke.

My advice, buy a key for the game outside of Steam and just give that to your friend.
You will pay much less then on Steam, your friend will get the game and Steam will get nothing.
Its the only way they will learn.

It's not steam loosing that money but the devs.

I suggest you look into the issue and you will see the devs are upset over a lot of shadey sites that do this where they buy a game where the price is lower and resell it for full price thus stealing money from the devs by doing this.

[Spazfrag]

Originally posted by Chompman:

I suggest you look into the issue and you will see the devs are upset over a lot of shadey sites that do this where they buy a game where the price is lower and resell it for full price thus stealing money from the devs by doing this.

Some of these Devs can go screw themselves. Why should I be expected to pay DOUBLE the price as the US because they just decide to? They are the dishonest scum, and valve are not only condoning it, they are enforcing it.

Sid Meier's Civilization® V:

$29.99 USD on the US steam store

$69.99 USD on the AU steam store.

Why? No reason. No reason whatsoever. Valve will make a lot more money by enforcing this price gouging though, which is why they are enforcing it. Because they make more money.

Valve are happy for their customers to be treated like exploited garbage as long as valve's pockets are fatter.

[Chompman]

Originally posted by Spazfrag:

Originally posted by Chompman:

I suggest you look into the issue and you will see the devs are upset over a lot of shadey sites that do this where they buy a game where the price is lower and resell it for full price thus stealing money from the devs by doing this.

Some of these Devs can go screw themselves. Why should I be expected to pay DOUBLE the price as the US because they just decide to? They are the dishonest scum, and valve are not only condoning it, they are enforcing it.

Sid Meier's Civilization® V:

$29.99 USD on the US steam store

$69.99 USD on the AU steam store.

Why? No reason. No reason whatsoever. Valve will make a lot more money by enforcing this price gouging though, which is why they are enforcing it. Because they make more money.

Valve are happy for their customers to be treated like exploited garbage as long as valve's pockets are fatter.

A large reason this happens is certain countries have restrictions and increased taxes over this and it's not the devs fault but your government that causes this.

Especially with the issues AU has caused with their currency being blocked from steam being able to use for so long.

Plus the retail stores often will get the government to increase the prices so they can charge more money for the game in their stores and this is another issue that happened in australia.

With this excuse would you be fine if everyone bought the game from the cheapest region with their currency exchange and be able to purchase the game for maybe $2-$3 at most?

Regional price restrictions were done for a reason and people will try to abuse it and then complain when their method gets blocked.

[PieceOfMind]

Originally posted by Chompman:

Originally posted by Spazfrag:

Some of these Devs can go screw themselves. Why should I be expected to pay DOUBLE the price as the US because they just decide to? They are the dishonest scum, and valve are not only condoning it, they are enforcing it.

Sid Meier's Civilization® V:

$29.99 USD on the US steam store

$69.99 USD on the AU steam store.

Why? No reason. No reason whatsoever. Valve will make a lot more money by enforcing this price gouging though, which is why they are enforcing it. Because they make more money.

Valve are happy for their customers to be treated like exploited garbage as long as valve's pockets are fatter.

A large reason this happens is certain countries have restrictions and increased taxes over this and it's not the devs fault but your government that causes this.

Especially with the issues AU has caused with their currency being blocked from steam being able to use for so long.

Plus the retail stores often will get the government to increase the prices so they can charge more money for the game in their stores and this is another issue that happened in australia.

With this excuse would you be fine if everyone bought the game from the cheapest region with their currency exchange and be able to purchase the game for maybe $2-$3 at most?

Regional price restrictions were done for a reason and people will try to abuse it and then complain when their method gets blocked.

What on Earth are you talking about?

Especially with the issues AU has caused with their currency being blocked from steam being able to use for so long.

Valve can use the AU currency at any time.

The only thing AU has is GST (10%) which currently Valve is able to avoid anyway, so that doesn't explain the more than 100% price gouge either.

The only reason price gouging like this occurs is publishers feel that it's what the market can bear. It's a lot different to having a much lower price in developing countries where the average purchasing power of customers is significantly lower (Russia for example).

It has virtually nothing to do with the government at all.

[Chompman]

Originally posted by PieceOfMind:

It has virtually nothing to do with the government at all.

I strongly suggest you look at this issue yourself and you will see your governments taxes is a large reason your prices are larger then other parts of the world and it's a known issue.

Especially with recent issues where they added an extra 10% cost on top of the extra taxes they have implemented: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/steam-prices-may-increase-in-australia-and-new-zea/1100-6448088/

If you think your government is not to blame for increased taxes for products like this and many others you do not understand how taxes work I guess.

You are correct that the devs place the prices higher then they should for awhile now but a lot of the times currency rates was an issue and they have not been adjusted correctly for awhile.

Factor in all of these reasons are good reasons on why but blaming steam is not the way to go and even if the devs placed the prices correctly you will still pay more because Australia is known for higher then average taxes and digital games is a prime example and you cannot expect the game devs to pay for these taxes instead of the consumer.