How to gift games to friend in another region?

[TypeDefinition]

My overseas friend got me a game for my birthday, and I would like to get him one in return for his. But due to regional price differences (my region is cheaper), steam does not allow me to do so. Is there any way for me to pay the pricing of his region to send him the game?

[rawWwRrr]

Nguyên văn bởi Type Definition:

But due to regional price differences (my region is cheaper), steam does not allow me to do so.

The restriction has to do with the difference in price being too great, not whether it is cheaper or more expensive. If that difference is greater than 10%, then you are restricted from gifting that game. Each game will have a different range of prices set by the publishers. You may find a game that you can gift despite the different regions.

Nguyên văn bởi Type Definition:

Is there any way for me to pay the pricing of his region to send him the game?

Not unless you live there. Usually in circumstances such as this the recommendation is to send that person a digital gift card in the amount of the game's purchase price in their region. There are no regional restrictions on gift cards and the money instantly converts into their currency.

[TypeDefinition]

Nguyên văn bởi rawWwRrr:

Nguyên văn bởi Type Definition:

But due to regional price differences (my region is cheaper), steam does not allow me to do so.

The restriction has to do with the difference in price being too great, not whether it is cheaper or more expensive. If that difference is greater than 10%, then you are restricted from gifting that game. Each game will have a different range of prices set by the publishers. You may find a game that you can gift despite the different regions.

Nguyên văn bởi Type Definition:

Is there any way for me to pay the pricing of his region to send him the game?

Not unless you live there. Usually in circumstances such as this the recommendation is to send that person a digital gift card in the amount of the game's purchase price in their region. There are no regional restrictions on gift cards and the money instantly converts into their currency.

Thanks I see. I wish Steam would give us a way to just pay the higher price to send the game. Clearly taxes and laws aren't the issue if he can send me a game, just not the other way around. While a gift card is an alternative, it feels inpersonal. I guess I'll just check if the game is sold elsewhere.

[Jaunitta 🌸]

Give them a digital gift its gets paid directly into their wallet.
Give the gift of more games with Steam Gift Cards. Now you can directly contribute to a friend or family member's Steam Wallet by digitally sending a gift card.
https://store.steampowered.com/digitalgiftcards/selectgiftcard

heres everything to know about regeon restrictions.
Region Restrictions on Steam

[Zerar]

S

[Zerar]

S

[Coochie Cakes💘☮]

Nguyên văn bởi Jaunitta 🌸:

Give them a digital gift its gets paid directly into their wallet.
Give the gift of more games with Steam Gift Cards. Now you can directly contribute to a friend or family member's Steam Wallet by digitally sending a gift card.
https://store.steampowered.com/digitalgiftcards/selectgiftcard

heres everything to know about regeon restrictions.
Region Restrictions on Steam

i have done this... see my visa card will never work on steam for whatever reason my card works fine on everything else including amazon,gamestop and maybe a couple more. but this is ridiclous all im trying to do is buy my friend halo. why does it have a 2 step program all because he lives in sweden this is retarded as ♥♥♥♥

[ONDIER]

Nguyên văn bởi Coochie Cakes💘☮:

Nguyên văn bởi Jaunitta 🌸:

Give them a digital gift its gets paid directly into their wallet.
Give the gift of more games with Steam Gift Cards. Now you can directly contribute to a friend or family member's Steam Wallet by digitally sending a gift card.
https://store.steampowered.com/digitalgiftcards/selectgiftcard

heres everything to know about regeon restrictions.
Region Restrictions on Steam

i have done this... see my visa card will never work on steam for whatever reason my card works fine on everything else including amazon,gamestop and maybe a couple more. but this is ridiclous all im trying to do is buy my friend halo. why does it have a 2 step program all because he lives in sweden this is retarded as ♥♥♥♥

Bump.

[agu]

Depending on the region you might want to look in sites like greenmangaming for a key

[xfrmdawic]

so bs man

[ONDIER]

Nguyên văn bởi MrSznobalix:

so bs man

Agree with the previous poster; just use alternatives.

[Snorri]

Please, can i just choose to pay whatever price is in the region i want to gift to? Honestly it shouldn't be that hard. I want to gift a friend a game, it costs more/less in that region. Let me pay full price or discount, whichever way, steam makes money. Seriously my buddy wouldn't even know about the game unless I wanted to gift it to him. So what's the problem?

[ONDIER]

Nguyên văn bởi Saitama:

Please, can i just choose to pay whatever price is in the region i want to gift to? Honestly it shouldn't be that hard. I want to gift a friend a game, it costs more/less in that region. Let me pay full price or discount, whichever way, steam makes money. Seriously my buddy wouldn't even know about the game unless I wanted to gift it to him. So what's the problem?

Steam is concerned they'll lose a few cents by paying a conversion fee.

[Wolf Knight]

Nguyên văn bởi KaiserZandrich:

Nguyên văn bởi Saitama:

Please, can i just choose to pay whatever price is in the region i want to gift to? Honestly it shouldn't be that hard. I want to gift a friend a game, it costs more/less in that region. Let me pay full price or discount, whichever way, steam makes money. Seriously my buddy wouldn't even know about the game unless I wanted to gift it to him. So what's the problem?

Steam is concerned they'll lose a few cents by paying a conversion fee.

incorrect. there are laws they must follow (tax laws can be a real pain), then you have the people that will try and sell gifts by buying them from a cheaper region and gifting them to more expensive regions.

if you dont like how the system works, make a post in the suggestion forum about it. include how you think it should work. if you cant handle criticism or people that dont support your idea, just post and move on.

[ONDIER]

Nguyên văn bởi Wolf Knight:

Nguyên văn bởi KaiserZandrich:

Steam is concerned they'll lose a few cents by paying a conversion fee.

incorrect. there are laws they must follow (tax laws can be a real pain), then you have the people that will try and sell gifts by buying them from a cheaper region and gifting them to more expensive regions.

if you dont like how the system works, make a post in the suggestion forum about it. include how you think it should work. if you cant handle criticism or people that dont support your idea, just post and move on.

You're inflating something really, really simple; every region Steam operates in equates to Steam following the tax laws, and consequently paying the tax involved in their operating within said region in the first place.

As for your second point; Steam keys, both on-platform and third-party-issue are locked to geographical and economical regions. Gifting DOES NOT issue a key to the person purchasing the gift - it issues a key to the recipient once accepted. Why would a "cheaper" region pay less when gifting to a "more expensive" region? OP and EVERY participant here shared the sentiment that they're willing to pay the full price in order to gift to a "more expensive" region. Inversely, wealthy regions would have no issues paying their "expensive" price in order to gift to a less wealthy region.

TL;DR tax laws are simple when you're already complying to them, key theft in the manner you described has been obsolete since 2007, everyone is willing to pay more/the price difference in order to gift a game to their friends.

Honestly, Steam worrying about losing a handful of cents per international gifting transaction is the reason the grey market is thriving. The region issue exists simply because Steam enjoys making fat cash in the first world, simple as that - otherwise the difference in tax and transaction costs would be the ONLY variables in regional pricing.

Publish something to Steam, I dare you. There's an entire little toolkit to help you milk regions to their maximum as a developer, including a min-max per region, as suggested by Steam itself.

[-hg- Madbritish]

i am trying to get DIgital gfit card for my friend but it said that her country isn't egliable to do (am from the UK, try to gift the Card to someone from the US)