Valve have changed how gifting games works

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.