How can I (living in US) gift my friend (living in Germany) a game?

[thornhale]

Steam has until now been a great online game store and community, but one change is still upsetting me to no end. My best friend lives in Germany and we have been gifting each other games for a long time.

About some time last year, Steam's policy changed. Gifting now no longer works for me because it appears that games in the US are cheaper after conversion compared to the EU. Steam explicitly prohibits any such transactions during the checkout process. Because of this, I can no longer gift games to my friend via Steam's regular gifting option.

The game I am looking to gift specifically is "Ori and the Blind Forest".

I am looking for a reason for this change in policy. Is this just pure greed?

But rather than just complaining about it (it is such stupid policy), I am looking for solutions. Are there any Steam approved methods which allow me to still gift my friend the game I mentioned above? Alternatively, do I need to explore other online game platforms (e.g.: Origin, MS Store) to be able to do that? How are you able to get around the restriction of not being able to gift games to people living in regions where the game costs more?

[phatbassanchor]

I found my solution and was able to not only purchase Fallout 4 GOTY but New Vegas as well for my friend all for around half the price that Steam was charging for just Fallout 4 GOTY. I have already confirmed successful acceptance of the keys I purchased and successful installation. So, in the end I received a better deal. I'll be shopping that site first from now. In the end Steam's policy to ban other regions worked out in my favor.
Thanks to all who responded. Adventure on friends, Phat

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

引用自 phatbassanchor：

I found my solution and was able to not only purchase Fallout 4 GOTY but New Vegas as well for my friend all for around half the price that Steam was charging for just Fallout 4 GOTY. I have already confirmed successful acceptance of the keys I purchased and successful installation. So, in the end I received a better deal. I'll be shopping that site first from now. In the end Steam's policy to ban other regions worked out in my favor.
Thanks to all who responded. Adventure on friends, Phat

Steam support game devs to sell keys via their own site/store, or game devs can use 3rd party retailers to sell the keys. Steam keys are 100% free given to game devs as they get 100% profit, as well choice what they want to do with their keys, as Steam does not take any cuts from sales for keys.

Which why when you see someone ask when next sale, someone going to say there's always sales daily, and not a joke, or meme because there are sales everyday either Steam, or 3rd party sites selling Steam keys. The majority of game keys you find online are for Steam, Ubisoft sales Uplay keys, EA sells Origin keys, barely any games for Epic games keys, and very rare are GoG keys. You find sites such as humble bundle, GreenmanGaming, indiegala, fanatical, or etc.

Games don't always go on sale at same time, so even if miss sale for game, if the game has keys via 3rd party, there good chance you find it going on sale before, during, or after it goes on sale on Steam, and sometimes it may go on sale more often on key sites than on Steam throughout the year.

[𝕙.𝕓𝕒𝕣𝕜𝕒𝕤]

引用自 Cathulhu：

h.barkas, your recommendation is about three years late.
And i would remove the first link as it advertises keyshop stores known to scam publishers and their customers.

Ah German Steam forum police hard at work again. Why isn't the link censored? Because it's entirely up to you to enable this option or not. Same as shopping at grey market sites out of your own volition. Nobody forces you to do a thing you deem morally wrong.
If my post would have violated forum rules it would be up to the moderators to take action don't you think?

[WhiteKnight]

That is one the changes i hate the most. I wish Valve would rethink this change. Before this change i was able to ask someone from US to gift me games that are banned or is region restricted like Fallout 3/New Vegas for instance. Now i can't even buy any of region-restricted games. Thx Valve you moronic company.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

引用自 h.barkas：

引用自 Cathulhu：

h.barkas, your recommendation is about three years late.
And i would remove the first link as it advertises keyshop stores known to scam publishers and their customers.

Ah German Steam forum police hard at work again. Why isn't the link censored? Because it's entirely up to you to enable this option or not. Same as shopping at grey market sites out of your own volition. Nobody forces you to do a thing you deem morally wrong.
If my post would have violated forum rules it would be up to the moderators to take action don't you think?

Wow, sensitive much? All that is is a warning to anyone who might find it and use it without being aware of what it is. It's not even a moral argument; people risk getting the games they buy revoked because of that.

[phatbassanchor]

Thanks everyone. Phat out