A brand-new update to Steam has added new features for gifting games, fulfilling a long-standing request from the userbase. This is just the latest in recent changes to Steam’s game gifting options in recent months.
Previously, Steam announced it would be discontinuing physical Steam gift cards. Though fans may still be able to find some in stores, once they run out of stock, they will no longer be produced and sold. The change was made in an effort to crack down on scams connected to gift cards targeting Steam users. Gamers can still buy and send Steam gift cards digitally, or they can use some of these new features to make gifting easier.
Steam Makes Big Changes to Gifting Games
In a new update to Steam, the platform has made some changes to gifting that should make it much easier for gamers to get the gifts they want. In short, Steam users can now share their wishlists with others, who can then buy any of the games listed without the gifter needing a membership to the platform themselves. Games can now be gifted across regions, and gamers can be given digital gift cards for Steam without the sender needing to know their account information. All that will be needed from this point on is an email address of the user, and it doesn’t have to be the email address associated with the account. This should help non-gamers to more easily buy gifts on Steam, and may help to increase privacy for users requesting gifts.
Guess the games from the emojis.
Guess the games from the emojis.
Easy (120s)Medium (90s)Hard (60s)
In addition to the changes to gifting, some smaller alterations have been made to wishlists themselves. Steam users can now organize wishlists into separate categories, and when sending the wishlist to another person, one can choose to just send a single category. For example, one might send a wishlist category with only educational games or a birthday wishlist to another person, while keeping the rest of their wishlist separate. This should ensure that any games a user places on their wishlist that they don’t want others to know about will be kept private.
Since their inception, Steam wishlists have been an extremely handy way to give friends on the platform presents. If left public, users can browse their friends’ wishlists and purchase a game right off it that will promptly be added to their account, providing a convenient way to give gifts on the fly. Combined with the already-existing ability to buy a game now and gift it at a later date, there are now considerable options for giving PC gamers what they want without having the gifter go through any significant hassles.
Given that Steam is seeing 350 games added to the platform every day on average, there’s a lot to potentially satisfy players already out there. Thankfully, Steam has also changed its search function, reviews, and recommendations in recent years to help make it easier for players to find what they’re looking for. Now that these new wishlist features have been added, Steam may end up seeing an even busier holiday shopping season than usual.