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!

[Seretti]

Using search to read previous threads about this would have saved you the time it took to write this short novel.

The answer will be the same here as in the other threads.

[Prince Arslan Dreamsmoker]

Цитата допису Seretti:

Using search to read previous threads about this would have saved you the time it took to write this short novel.

The answer will be the same here as in the other threads.

I looked it up, and here is what I found:
1. 2 Posts about having an error when sending a gift
2. Someone's gift disappearing
3. 2 posts in Spanish
4. A credit card issue
5. Someone's account getting disabled after sending a gift

And so on and so forth. Unless you're asking me to thoroughly look up all 5298 pages of threads including the word "gifting", I think I should be allowed to start a discussion, especially with my personal perspective lol

[Seretti]

Sounds like your search skills need some improvement then

I'll be kind and post an example here: https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/10/2961670087544436678/

[Brian9824]

Цитата допису Arslan Dreamsmoker:

Now, however, gifting people outside of your region is something we can no longer do.

That is false, your free to gift to people in ANY region, as long as the price doesn't have a difference of more then 10%.

Цитата допису Arslan Dreamsmoker:

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:

Again false, it happened because people abused pricing to get games for cheaper prices.

Цитата допису Arslan Dreamsmoker:

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.

No you cannot do that with giftcards, if you buy a regional gift card and transfer it then it gets converted. If a game is $10 in Region A and $50 in region B, if you buy a $10 giftcard in region A when sent to region B its only $10.


The entire point is its the ONLY way to block people from "gifting" games from cheaper regions.

[76561198407601200]

Цитата допису Arslan Dreamsmoker:

Цитата допису Seretti:

Using search to read previous threads about this would have saved you the time it took to write this short novel.

The answer will be the same here as in the other threads.

I looked it up, and here is what I found:
1. 2 Posts about having an error when sending a gift
2. Someone's gift disappearing
3. 2 posts in Spanish
4. A credit card issue
5. Someone's account getting disabled after sending a gift

And so on and so forth. Unless you're asking me to thoroughly look up all 5298 pages of threads including the word "gifting", I think I should be allowed to start a discussion, especially with my personal perspective lol

Had you done a search, you would have saw the multiple topics on this and how the suggestion has been debunked time after time just as this one will be. Send the person a digital steam gift card and they can purchase games.

[Yuxtapuestoelmono]

I think this is a very good idea, even if you have to pay more.

[Prince Arslan Dreamsmoker]

Цитата допису The Living Tribunal:

Цитата допису Arslan Dreamsmoker:

I looked it up, and here is what I found:
1. 2 Posts about having an error when sending a gift
2. Someone's gift disappearing
3. 2 posts in Spanish
4. A credit card issue
5. Someone's account getting disabled after sending a gift

And so on and so forth. Unless you're asking me to thoroughly look up all 5298 pages of threads including the word "gifting", I think I should be allowed to start a discussion, especially with my personal perspective lol

Had you done a search, you would have saw the multiple topics on this and how the suggestion has been debunked time after time just as this one will be. Send the person a digital steam gift card and they can purchase games.

I think the very post you quoted included what I found when I searched. Please read my message, especially if youre gonna quote it

[Prince Arslan Dreamsmoker]

Цитата допису brian9824:

No you cannot do that with giftcards, if you buy a regional gift card and transfer it then it gets converted. If a game is $10 in Region A and $50 in region B, if you buy a $10 giftcard in region A when sent to region B its only $10.


The entire point is its the ONLY way to block people from "gifting" games from cheaper regions.

As I said in my post, I am suggesting that Steam allows us to gift ANY game to ANY user in ANY region, and allow us the option to pay the price displayed on the RECEIVER'S end. I know that gift cards get converted, and the amount sent is the same value. I know that this is not the case for games. What I am saying is the option to pay MORE if we want to send any gift to any user.


I read the post that Seretti sent where you talked about this more in-depth. I understand its difficult, but:

1. Valve has the resources; theyre not an indie studio
2. As difficult as it is, I am voicing my opinion as a user, in the hope to contribute towards Valve pushing it up the priority list, no matter how small my voice is. A company makes something a priority if multiple people talk about it, and I am one of those people.

Your comments are very insightful, but they only show the scope of difficulty. I understand it's difficult, but thats irrelevant to the spirit and purpose of making a suggestion; if we only suggest that which is easy, there's no point for a suggestion forum.

[[?]legit]

This is actually a very important feature, I think it has to come. Otherwise people are forced to gift games by purchasing keys, which is not a great workaround.

[[?]legit]

Цитата допису The Living Tribunal:

Цитата допису Arslan Dreamsmoker:

I looked it up, and here is what I found:
1. 2 Posts about having an error when sending a gift
2. Someone's gift disappearing
3. 2 posts in Spanish
4. A credit card issue
5. Someone's account getting disabled after sending a gift

And so on and so forth. Unless you're asking me to thoroughly look up all 5298 pages of threads including the word "gifting", I think I should be allowed to start a discussion, especially with my personal perspective lol

Had you done a search, you would have saw the multiple topics on this and how the suggestion has been debunked time after time just as this one will be. Send the person a digital steam gift card and they can purchase games.

Unless you can buy digital steam gift cards in steam and gift them to a friend through steam, this seems like a bad workaround for me.

[Prince Arslan Dreamsmoker]

Цитата допису Seretti:

Sounds like your search skills need some improvement then

I'll be kind and post an example here: https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/10/2961670087544436678/

With all due respect, I don't have the time to spend my efforts refining my skill of looking up suggestions on the Steam forum lol. But thanks for the post; I did read it, and I did refer to it above

[Prince Arslan Dreamsmoker]

Цитата допису Legit:

Цитата допису The Living Tribunal:

Had you done a search, you would have saw the multiple topics on this and how the suggestion has been debunked time after time just as this one will be. Send the person a digital steam gift card and they can purchase games.

Unless you can buy digital steam gift cards in steam and gift them to a friend through steam, this seems like a bad workaround for me.

You actually can. Its hidden in a very small corner in the top left section of the homepage, and I only discovered it recently, even though I'm a reasonably old steam user. Bad UI move tbh.

But personally, I think that even a gift card is a bad workaround for a lot of things. It's the Steam equivalent of replacing real life wrapped gifts with...well, gift cards. Gift cards are a good option to have, but only if its not the only option.

I understand that its complicated, and it's probably good as a TEMPORARY solution until Valve invests in its legal team to figure out its tax scheme lol, but I do think they should treat it as a temporary thing and not settle on it as the new permanent.

EDIT: See? now the gift card button disappeared completely from the home page with the new sale, and I am left wondering if they did it intentionally because it complicates the sale, or if there is a menu entry for it that I am unaware of. This is a separate, but completely justified topic: the UI needs to make it clearer that we HAVE the option to send gift cards natively through Steam, let alone where the heck it is.

[[?]legit]

That's a great feature, which I didn't even know existed lol. But I agree that it serves another purpose and is no replacement for the abilty to gift games.

The most important feature of the game gifting function is that the person has the ability to decline the gift, which will instantly refund you the money you spent for the game.

[Start_Running]

Цитата допису Legit:

That's a great feature, which I didn't even know existed lol. But I agree that it serves another purpose and is no replacement for the abilty to gift games.

The most important feature of the game gifting function is that the person has the ability to decline the gift, which will instantly refund you the money you spent for the game.

Yeah but people have no reason to decline a gift card, because - free money.

They can spend it on something they want.

[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...