Allow purchasing Steam gifts without a Steam account for friends/family

[Jaawn]

I think a lot of people have friends/family that don't have steam accounts (especially parents/grandparents/etc...). It'd be cool if there was a way for them to easily access a Steam user's wishlist and to purchase gifts for them without having to have a Steam account.

For example, my parents would love to have something other than gift cards to give me as a gift for holidays / birthdays / etc... but they don't feel comfortable making a Steam account and installing Steam just to buy gifts.

I think it would generate a lot of business (and happy gamers) if Valve created a web gifting interface where either Steam users could send out a gifting URL to friends/family, or you could give gifts to a Steam user by knowing their email address.

[TirithRR]

That's what the Wallet cards are for. In the end it would be easier to push for an increased availability of these cards.

[Jaawn]

Wallet cards / gift cards are cool and all, but it puts Steam gamers in an awkward position during holiday sales. Like...there are some games I'd like that are on sale, but I might get a gift card as a gift...so am I supposed to wait and miss the sale?

It's not ideal. It also feels better to a lot of people to buy a specific thing and not a gift card. It would feel good to friends/family to open a page with my wishlist, and buy a specific game from it that will be digitally "delivered" to my game library on a given date.

[Satoru]

That's sorta nonsensical. Most online stoers dont let you purchase things witout a local account.

Making a steam account is no different than making an amazon account.

[Jaawn]

Originally posted by Satoru:

That's sorta nonsensical. Most online stoers dont let you purchase things witout a local account.

Making a steam account is no different than making an amazon account.

Tons of online stores let you checkout as a "guest" ... In fact, I think most of them do.

[Jaawn]

A Steam account is for a person to use with the steam software anyway. It is dumb to expect people to make one when all they want to do is give a gift. My mom doesn't need a Steam profile, or an account handle, or to install the steam client, or to have an inventory or a library, etc... But, occasionally she might want to buy a game for me. She can go to Best Buy and buy a game and then give it to me... She doesn't have to join a special gamers club at Best Buy just to buy a game, she shouldn't have to for Steam either.

I am actually surprised Valve hasn't created a web gifting system already...

[Gus the Crocodile]

Yeah, checking out as a guest seems very common to me too. Not sure why certain stores requiring an account would make a guest option "nonsensical" anyway, though. Most people on Earth don't use Steam, therefore as Steam users, perhaps we're all being nonsensical.

Normally the arguments against payment-related stuff relate to abuse cases, but I don't really see one here. You can't add stuff to your inventory to trade (because as a guest you don't have one), so it's clearly limited to straight gifting. Which, even under Valve's recent trading restrictions, is untouched. So I don't see how this could cause any new problems.

As ever, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for it to happen, but at least off the top of my head, it seems a reasonable suggestion.

[Kyle Katarn]

I totally agree, especially as you need to pay to have friends and you can only gift to friends

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by Olliwins:

I totally agree, especially as you need to pay to have friends and you can only gift to friends

1. Limited users can have non-limited users add them.

2. This thread was from before the gifting changes last year.

3. For the last part, no.

[Vaulty]

Buying steam gifts without owning an account? What about stolen credit cards then? Thief could easily go on steam buy a game for his friend and maybe even for random people on forums and boom ez free games for others or ez free bans for others