Gifts to friends in other countries: Ability to buy games to gift with the currency of friends store?

[sistatheta]

I know Steam changed their gifting policy a few years back and we cannot gift games to friends in other stores/countries due to change in exchange rates/prices etc. However, why not add an option where the purchaser of the gift can actually choose whether or not they are willing to buy the game in the currency of the store they are sending it to?

Example - I am buying a friend in Ireland a game from Turkey store. This game is currently 25 TL here, but 12 Euros (250 TL) or so in Ireland. Steam should let me choose an option to pay that instead. I'm happy to pay 12 Euros as a gift!

I feel like Steam may lose revenue because of this too - I don't want to buy a gift card and send it to my friend saying "buy this game". I feel like it ruins the surprise element/experience. Instead, my solution today was buying the game on gog.com instead and gifting it to them from there instead. I'd rather be able to do it on Steam instead (if possible)!

[Hikari Light]

Some regions such as Turkey and Argentina cannot trade or gift outside their region. Your method is an attempt to evade regional pricing restrictions and can lead to your account getting suspended if you attempt to do so.

[Hikari Light]

Originally posted by macha018:

I haven't heard of this actually; back in 2020 around Christmas time ~ I bought a game for a friend (in a different country) and was able to buy the game for them via the 'purchase as a gift' option during checkout on Steam - they were able to play it successfully on their account.

But I do agree that gift cards are a bit boring to give, it's better to give the game really; or at least the game key so they can activate it on their account - whilst GOG is a good option, G2A is also a good platform to purchase game keys.

Use isthereanydeal.com to find legitimate and LEGAL key seller sites. The fact the one you posted got censored shows it is not trust worthy.

[Alejandro]

ohh

[sistatheta]

Originally posted by nullable:

Originally posted by maidentr:

I know Steam changed their gifting policy a few years back and we cannot gift games to friends in other stores/countries due to change in exchange rates/prices etc. However, why not add an option where the purchaser of the gift can actually choose whether or not they are willing to buy the game in the currency of the store they are sending it to?

Example - I am buying a friend in Ireland a game from Turkey store. This game is currently 25 TL here, but 12 Euros (250 TL) or so in Ireland. Steam should let me choose an option to pay that instead. I'm happy to pay 12 Eurps as a gift!

Buy your friends a digital giftcard.

Originally posted by maidentr:

I feel like Steam is losing revenue because of this too - I don't want to buy a gift card and send it to my friend saying "buy this game". It ruins the entire experience. Instead, my solution today was buying the game on gog.com instead and gifting it to them from there instead.

You can feel whatever you want when you're using your imagination. Valve actually has detailed information about their revenue and has made informed decisions about how to operate.

Lots of people would be happy to pay pennies on the dollar for games. Lots of people would be happy to set up a Turkish or Argentine account and buy games for pennies on the dollar and gift them to their fraudulent "foreign" accounts. Whatever kludges you can think of are probably not better than not allowing the possibility for abuse.

If you're that desperate to gift games to someone in another country, buy them a digital giftcard. If that's not acceptable then you don't really seem to care too much about the gift part, you might only care about having your way.

I have actually used this method in the past, but sometimes I think I'd really just prefer to surprise a friend with a game instead of having to say "I got you this card for this game." They've been able to do it to me before because their store is in Euros not TL. I feel like gift cards sort of ruins the surprise. One time to gift a game I had to buy 2 gift cards because the max amount on a gift card I could buy with my store wasn't enough for her to buy the game. Not the best experience from her end - not just mine.

As a side not, this is not about "being desperate", it's about trying to create a potentially better experience of gifting games to friends who live elsewhere - hence the suggestion to give people the option to choose to pay more when sending abroad - legally. "Valve actually has detailed information about their revenue and has made informed decisions about how to operate." - You may be right about this, it was on the off the hand comment which may not be accurate, however, when I went to GOG to buy a gift and it worked perfectly, well, in the future I may just prefer this method when I'd rather have done it in Steam.

[Boblin the Goblin]

Originally posted by macha018:

I haven't heard of this actually; back in 2020 around Christmas time ~ I bought a game for a friend (in a different country) and was able to buy the game for them via the 'purchase as a gift' option during checkout on Steam - they were able to play it successfully on their account.

But I do agree that gift cards are a bit boring to give, it's better to give the game really; or at least the game key so they can activate it on their account - whilst GOG is a good option, G2A is also a good platform to purchase game keys.

Do not use G2A.

They are shady as ♥♥♥♥ and do not sell keys bought from developers.

[macha018]

Originally posted by SlowMango:

Originally posted by macha018:

I haven't heard of this actually; back in 2020 around Christmas time ~ I bought a game for a friend (in a different country) and was able to buy the game for them via the 'purchase as a gift' option during checkout on Steam - they were able to play it successfully on their account.

But I do agree that gift cards are a bit boring to give, it's better to give the game really; or at least the game key so they can activate it on their account - whilst GOG is a good option, G2A is also a good platform to purchase game keys.

Do not use G2A.

They are shady as ♥♥♥♥ and do not sell keys bought from developers.

I had no idea my post was censored, some friends had recommended me it so I assumed it was alright, thanks for correcting me!

[macha018]

Originally posted by HikariLight:

Originally posted by macha018:

I haven't heard of this actually; back in 2020 around Christmas time ~ I bought a game for a friend (in a different country) and was able to buy the game for them via the 'purchase as a gift' option during checkout on Steam - they were able to play it successfully on their account.

But I do agree that gift cards are a bit boring to give, it's better to give the game really; or at least the game key so they can activate it on their account - whilst GOG is a good option, G2A is also a good platform to purchase game keys.

Use isthereanydeal.com to find legitimate and LEGAL key seller sites. The fact the one you posted got censored shows it is not trust worthy.

I didn't know until I came back to the thread and read the replies, I have since deleted my comment, but thanks for letting me know. I haven't actually used it myself and won't ever.