Ability to gift games to people outside of your region!

[Prince Arslan Dreamsmoker]

There was a time when gifting people games used to be a part of those "traditions" or practices that we took for granted. It really was something that people enjoyed doing; from giveaways, to gifting strangers out of kindness, and even as surprises for online friends, especially now after the pandemic where people developed so many friendships overseas.

Now, however, gifting people outside of your region is something we can no longer do. Surprise birthday presents are no longer a thing you can do on Steam, and gifting someone a game out of nowhere because you want them to play multiplayer with you is no longer a thing; you have to get them a gift card, and tell them which game you wanted to gift them. Even worse, you have to ask them to look up the game on their store, tell you the amount, so you can gift them a gift card of the same amount. It gets even more complicated if you want to gift them multiple games, and ask them to look up all the games and tell you each of their prices in their regional store.

This change happened because Steam has shifted to regional stores, and don't get me wrong; regional stores have had a lot of positives, both for developers and players. I'm not implying that regional stores are bad, but here is where my suggestion comes in:

Bring back the ability to gift people outside of your region back! Make it so that if I am in the US for example, I can gift a game to someone in Europe. I, as someone using the American store, would have to pay the European price for the game (we already do that btw, when we send gift cards. If I want my European friend to buy a game, I send them a gift card with the amount necessary for them to buy the game in the European store).

If Steam is worried that this could be used for tax evasion purposes, or even farming inventory gifts for third party stores, then eliminate inventory mechanics for cross-regional gifting; redeemed games cannot be put in the inventory; they have to go straight to the library. Rejected gifts either get refunded (as Steam wallet credit or otherwise) or completely cancelled.

I honestly can't think of any loophole in this that people would abuse. One worry I thought of is that people would make two accounts; one for their region, and one for another cheaper region, and just funnel games from their regional account to the other, essentially getting all their games for cheaper. Then I realized, they can already do this with gift cards. In other words, there is no reason for for gifted games to be specifically taken down with the introduction of regional stores.

In summary; I would like the ability to gift games to my overseas friends again, and I wouldn't mind having to pay the game price in THEIR regional store, whether it is lower or higher, because this is what we already do as we send them Steam gift cards of the same amount. Only difference is, we can no longer send surprise gifts.

Are there any downsides to this? I would love to know what you think, whoever is reading this. Share your thoughts!

[Judgmental Amaterasu]

Messaggio originale di Yuxtapuestoelmono:

Anyone should be able to gift games to anyone else, since the purchase is made by the SENDER, he should be charged the price in HIS region...

Loud screeching doesn't change the fact it was changed because of abuse. Send a gift card.

[Yuxtapuestoelmono]

Loud screeching?, i was not yelling...?

[Brian9824]

Messaggio originale di Yuxtapuestoelmono:

Anyone should be able to gift games to anyone else, since the purchase is made by the SENDER, he should be charged the price in HIS region...

Well publishers didn't like that people could buy a $60 game for $10 in a cheap region and gift it to people in the US for instance....

So people taking advantage of features is why we cant have nice things

[Yuxtapuestoelmono]

Yeah well, what about someone buying a game in a region where the game is more expensive and gifting to to someone in a different region, where the same game is cheaper?, you know, because the recipient wanted such game?, that also happens you know?...
Aniway, if you can buy gift cards, then that is at least something, it is "colder" to do, at least where i live, but you get what you can get...

[Brian9824]

Messaggio originale di Yuxtapuestoelmono:

Yeah well, what about someone buying a game in a region where the game is more expensive and gifting to to someone in a different region, where the same game is cheaper?, you know, because the recipient wanted such game?, that also happens you know?...
Aniway, if you can buy gift cards, then that is at least something, it is "colder" to do, at least where i live, but you get what you can get...

Yes it happens, however people weren't setting up a business around that as no one would pay them MORE then a game cost.

People would create an account in a cheap region, you'd paypal them say $20, and they'd buy a game for $10 you'd pay $30 for.

You save $10, they make $10, and developer lost $20.

[Yuxtapuestoelmono]

OK, look, i understand that, i have never came acorss anything like it, but i checked around and yes, it happened, however, it is not fair that ALL of us have to pay for what SOME people did, even if you use that "people taking advantage of features is why we cant have nice things" argument, it is still not fair, when my (then girlfriend) wife wanted a game, some years ago, i was not able to gift it to her (she is Russian, i am Argentinian), so it was not until she moved here to America, that i was able to actually gift her that game...

[Brian9824]

Messaggio originale di Yuxtapuestoelmono:

OK, look, i understand that, i have never came acorss anything like it, but i checked around and yes, it happened, however, it is not fair that ALL of us have to pay for what SOME people did, even if you use that "people taking advantage of features is why we cant have nice things" argument, it is still not fair, when my (then girlfriend) wife wanted a game, some years ago, i was not able to gift it to her (she is Russian, i am Argentinian), so it was not until she moved here to America, that i was able to actually gift her that game...

That is why we have all sorts of rules and restrictions. It's why stores don't offer people a tab and instead demand payment upfront.

It's why we have rules about the speed limit, rules about who can buy alcohol, rules about everything.

A few people breaking the rules always results in restrictions for everyone. It's life unfortunately and life isn't fair.

The facts are there is no way they can make it fair without making it unfair for their OTHER customers which are dev's/publishers.

So that is why there is a fair option which is sending a gift card. It's not hard to say here is $xxx for game xxx

[Yuxtapuestoelmono]

Yes, i guess we have to do it that way, well, like we say here, "Ajo y Agua".

[[?]legit]

Messaggio originale di brian9824:

Messaggio originale di Yuxtapuestoelmono:

OK, look, i understand that, i have never came acorss anything like it, but i checked around and yes, it happened, however, it is not fair that ALL of us have to pay for what SOME people did, even if you use that "people taking advantage of features is why we cant have nice things" argument, it is still not fair, when my (then girlfriend) wife wanted a game, some years ago, i was not able to gift it to her (she is Russian, i am Argentinian), so it was not until she moved here to America, that i was able to actually gift her that game...

So that is why there is a fair option which is sending a gift card. It's not hard to say here is $xxx for game xxx

It certainly is. Or do you gift your family and friends at christmas some money and say "Here's some cash for ya, just buy something yourself." ?

[Brian9824]

Messaggio originale di Legit:

Messaggio originale di brian9824:

So that is why there is a fair option which is sending a gift card. It's not hard to say here is $xxx for game xxx

It certainly is. Or do you gift your family and friends at christmas some money and say "Here's some cash for ya, just buy something yourself." ?

As a matter of fact I do. Many of my nephews and nieces enjoy shopping and being able to pick out their own items. Steam gift cards are a common gift and they then usually use them during sales to pick out whatever items catch their eye, or buy DLC, or in game items that I can't gift.

To be honest, i prefer it myself, then I can use the money during sales and instead of getting 1 game for instance get 2-3 for the same amount of money that would have been spent.

Again though, its very clear WHY it is that way, and there isn't a way for steam to allow it sadly without developers losing billions of dollars. So its the only way thats fair to everyone sadly.

[[?]legit]

There is nothing more satisfying on steam when the gift window pops up and says that you have received a steam gift, or when you click in the notification area on '1 new gift', and then on 'Accept gift'.

The gift system is a fundamental feature in steam, but unfortunately it's limited and while your mentions about abuse are totally understandable, it's hard to understand for me why steam doesn't just fix that by making people pay the regional difference or whatever. There are easy fixes for that.

[Brian9824]

Messaggio originale di Legit:

There is nothing more satisfying on steam when the gift window pops up and says that you have received a steam gift, or when you click in the notification area on '1 new gift', and then on 'Accept gift'.

The gift system is a fundamental feature in steam, but unfortunately it's limited and while your mentions about abuse are totally understandable, it's hard to understand for me why steam doesn't just fix that by making people pay the regional difference or whatever. There are easy fixes for that.

Part of it is taxes, some regions like EU have the taxes built into the price of the game, others charge it at the time of sale, and it gets tricky because some regions don't tax at all.

It's not an unusual restriction
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GVWGP284MQ6ZRM59

Kindle eBooks can only be redeemed by recipients in your same country.

Amazon is even more restrictive for instance

Vudu you can only do gift cards

Nintendo no gifting at all
https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/290/~/can-i-send-a-gift-through-nintendo-eshop%3F

No. It is not possible to send a gift in the Nintendo eShop (on-device or off-device). You may consider gifting a prepaid Nintendo eShop card or a download code instead.

Most digital sites have the same restrictions because of the issues involved with gifting of digital items and the ambiguity of tax law regarding them.

[[?]legit]

Fair points, but since steam is a game digital distribution service in first place, it should not be impossible for Valve to find a solution for gifting games internationally, if Valve wanted to.

[Brian9824]

Messaggio originale di Legit:

Fair points, but since steam is a game digital distribution service in first place, it should not be impossible for Valve to find a solution for gifting games internationally, if Valve wanted to.

Again, it's outside valves control and on the hands of dozens of different governments that treat it differently.

Amazon is far bigger then steam and yet they don't have a solution either so it's like saying it "should he easy to solve world hunger".

Saying it doesn't magically make it happen and change how the world operates. Vudu, Nintendo, Amazon, etc are all digital distribution services and none of them have a solution either because they can't control the governments of countries

[kitt]

Messaggio originale di brian9824:

Messaggio originale di Yuxtapuestoelmono:

Anyone should be able to gift games to anyone else, since the purchase is made by the SENDER, he should be charged the price in HIS region...

Well publishers didn't like that people could buy a $60 game for $10 in a cheap region and gift it to people in the US for instance....

So people taking advantage of features is why we cant have nice things

publishers like to virtue signal but when it comes down to real world stuff like gifting people games they all screach like children and suddenly the virtue signaling about tolerance and inclusiveness is thrown over board.
Seems kinda xenophobic if they are scared about people gifiting games to other countries, but hey at least they can change their Twitter profile every 2 months.