Valve have put up a short blog post detailing some changes to the way gifting games will work, as of today.
The first major change is how you send it to the other user, with the only option now being to send it directly through Steam. You can no longer buy up games and store them in your Steam inventory to give out later. I'm not sure of their reasons behind this, other than to stop people stocking up on copies of games while they're cheap. People will now likely just resort to places like Humble for that purpose.
Another change, which actually seems rather pro-consumer, is that if the gift is declined, the person who purchased it gets a refund instead of it sneaking into their inventory. I think that's a fantastic option in case of unwanted gifts, no one loses out. I'm actually quite impressed they did that, it's one change I'm happy with since I get a bit trigger happy sending gifts during the holiday season. It brings purchases as gifts on Steam more in line with physical copies, being able to return it if it's not right.
Gifting from one country to another has also been made simpler. If you buy a game for someone in a different country, the person receiving the game will be safe in knowing that it will work for them. However, if there's a major difference in pricing between the countries you won't be able to gift it to them. I guess some were using that to get around price differences, which is a little hole in their system they've closed. I've never personally needed to get around pricing myself like that, but I do understand in certain countries pricing isn't right, so I'm sure some will be unhappy with this.
What do you think to these changes? Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
The first major change is how you send it to the other user, with the only option now being to send it directly through Steam. You can no longer buy up games and store them in your Steam inventory to give out later. I'm not sure of their reasons behind this, other than to stop people stocking up on copies of games while they're cheap. People will now likely just resort to places like Humble for that purpose.
Another change, which actually seems rather pro-consumer, is that if the gift is declined, the person who purchased it gets a refund instead of it sneaking into their inventory. I think that's a fantastic option in case of unwanted gifts, no one loses out. I'm actually quite impressed they did that, it's one change I'm happy with since I get a bit trigger happy sending gifts during the holiday season. It brings purchases as gifts on Steam more in line with physical copies, being able to return it if it's not right.
Gifting from one country to another has also been made simpler. If you buy a game for someone in a different country, the person receiving the game will be safe in knowing that it will work for them. However, if there's a major difference in pricing between the countries you won't be able to gift it to them. I guess some were using that to get around price differences, which is a little hole in their system they've closed. I've never personally needed to get around pricing myself like that, but I do understand in certain countries pricing isn't right, so I'm sure some will be unhappy with this.
What do you think to these changes? Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Quoting: sasannAnd I could not add him as a friend cause you cannot have friends on steam unless you spend $5 or more on games.
I added a new account (for a kid) to my friend list, but it was very tricky.
I have a steam group. I was able to find and join the steam group with the new account. Then I could invite the new account as a friend or vice versa, don't remember.
Last edited by 1xok on 6 May 2017 at 7:25 pm UTC
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Somewhat off topic, but answering this: If a friend has not made any purchases on Steam, then they cannot Add You as a friend. But you are still able to Add Them as a friend, and they need to validate. That makes you Friends on Steam. Until your friend reaches the $5 limit and then they can make friend requests for themselves.
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Quoting: ripperQuoting: ageresIf a game I already own gets ported to Linux, I buy a copy and store it in my inventory. I cannot gift it immediately because I don't have any friends using Linux, so that would be counted as a Windows sale AFAIK. So, what should I do now?
Write the developers to put a donate button on their website. Or at least tell you where you can send them some extra "thank you" money. The usual reply "just buy another copy" won't work anymore. I honestly believe each developer should have such a button, because of sales and bundles. If they don't, they are losing money. I often want to pay some extra (but not necessarily a full price) as well.
I get a lot of games for free from various sources and would like to donate VS getting another copy of the game.
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FutureSuture May 9, 2017
Quoting: ageresIf a game I already own gets ported to Linux, I buy a copy and store it in my inventory. I cannot gift it immediately because I don't have any friends using Linux, so that would be counted as a Windows sale AFAIK. So, what should I do now?I have done this a few times i.e. bought games on Linux, kept them for at least 15 days so that they would be permanently recorded as Linux sales, then gifted them to Windows users. Now Valve took even that away. This basically means that I can no longer gift games to friends who use Windows.
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Quoting: FutureSutureThis basically means that I can no longer gift games to friends who use Windows.
To be honest, it's one way less for us to cheat the system. :)
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Quoting: EikeQuoting: FutureSutureThis basically means that I can no longer gift games to friends who use Windows.
To be honest, it's one way less for us to cheat the system. :)
It's not cheating the system. It is a Linux gamer who paid out the cash for the game.
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Quoting: g000hIt's not cheating the system. It is a Linux gamer who paid out the cash for the game.
... but it's supposed to be played on Windows.
If there was no Windows version, the gifting wouldn't happen.
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There are two statistics of merit here:
1) The person who paid money for the game is running Linux.
2) The platform being used for playing the game.
The developer can gain both bits of information from Steam statistics generated by buying or playing the game.
On which note, I have a massive backlog of games, so the person buying is running Linux - and then there's no stats of anyone playing them (yet).
1) The person who paid money for the game is running Linux.
2) The platform being used for playing the game.
The developer can gain both bits of information from Steam statistics generated by buying or playing the game.
On which note, I have a massive backlog of games, so the person buying is running Linux - and then there's no stats of anyone playing them (yet).
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It's still possible to buy gifts and store them in inventory, if you are using the bic pictures mode.
But then the gift is in your inventory and you can't do anything with it. :)
But then the gift is in your inventory and you can't do anything with it. :)
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