Home Gaming Valve changes how Steam Gifts work

Valve changes how Steam Gifts work

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Steam

Valve’s Steam allows you to gift items, and trade gift items around like some sort of digital game bartering bazaar. Unfortunately, sometimes that sort of thing goes awry thanks to unscrupulous people on the internet. Valve has now changed the way it handles Steam trading, which they say is for your protection.

Speaking on the Steam Community site, one Drunken F00l heralded the change, which makes it so that games bought as gifts can’t be traded for 30 days.

“We’ve made this change to make trading gifts a better experience for those receiving the gifts,” he says.  We’re hoping this lowers the number of people who trade for a game only to have the game revoked later due to issues with the purchaser’s payment method.”

Games that you’ve bought and placed in your inventory can still be gifted at any time, so if you’re eyeing out the sales intent on buying cheap Christmas gifts, you needn’t panic; you’ll still be able to do that, especially with the big steam sale rumoured to start tomorrow. You just won’t be able to trade them.  Valve says it’s to protect you from scammers, but I have this sneaking suspicion its to protect them from publishers who aren’t too happy that enterprising people in places like Russia are trading their significantly cheaper games.

I imagine people using those sorts of services are about to become rather angry.

Last Updated: November 25, 2014

29 Comments

  1. Alien Emperor Trevor

    November 25, 2014 at 13:32

    Less grifting, more gifting!

    Reply

  2. Admiral Chief Wang

    November 25, 2014 at 13:34

    MY CREDIT CARD is NOT READY

    Reply

    • Kensei Seraph No DA:I spoilers

      November 25, 2014 at 13:35

      When is it ever?

      Reply

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      November 25, 2014 at 13:39

      Yes, I reckon I’ll window shop this time round, save my money for the xmas sale.

      Reply

    • Brady miaau

      November 25, 2014 at 13:47

      Just before December too? Ouch.

      Have your tried exercising it, to assist in this fitness problem?

      Reply

  3. Hammersteyn

    November 25, 2014 at 13:41

    Ah yes it’s almost that time again, when the games that were pirated earlier this year gets bought for significantly cheaper than the day one price.

    Reply

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      November 25, 2014 at 13:42

      Not if they didn’t like their “demo”. 😉

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        November 25, 2014 at 13:44

        LOL

        Reply

      • Brady miaau

        November 25, 2014 at 14:29

        Perhaps this is one of the reasons why backlogs are so big? I remember some sort of stat, that a lot of games bought on Steam are never played. Perhaps they were played, but not logged?

        Reply

        • Alien Emperor Trevor

          November 25, 2014 at 14:49

          I bought a lot of older games just because I wanted an electronic copy too. So there’s a crap load of games I’ve actually played but don’t have Steam hours logged. Plus your games list will only ever get bigger, never smaller, because it’s not like you can trade in games once you’re done with them.

          Reply

          • Brady miaau

            November 25, 2014 at 14:53

            Well, to be fair, I did that with Kotor 1+2, rome total war 1 as well.

            What, no 2nd hand PC games?

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            November 25, 2014 at 14:57

            Not for many, MANY years hehe.

            Also mustn’t forget buying indie bundles where I only want 3 or 4 of the games in it & end up with 12+.

          • Brady miaau

            November 25, 2014 at 15:06

            Yes, I got a whole bunch of crap like that, hence my never, ever, buying a humble bundle again!

    • RustedFaith

      November 25, 2014 at 16:33

      LoL I am glad I am not the only one doing it. Time to pay for the games what they are actually worth. Sadly only 4 games made it from my pirate pile this year that deserves a 75% discounted purchase.

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        November 25, 2014 at 17:15

        I’m not pirating at all, was mentioning people that actually pirate and buy later. I’m glad you support the devs at least.

        Reply

        • RustedFaith

          November 26, 2014 at 10:29

          HAve over 200 titles on steam and over 400 in total purchased so dont get me wrong thinking im stingy. Heck I even donated R2000 to Elite Dangerous and R2500 to StarCitizen.

          The issue is not about the money the issue is Publisher fucking you over and milking you for all that its worth with DLC’s and content that should have been in the game released as paid content.

          I pirate all AAA games because of all the bullshit and crap that gets released. Then not to mention Nvidia gameworks being forced on gamers and making the game run bad on Nvidia and AMD cards.

          So yah il spend money but not on the abortions being released lately. I hate EA and wont buy any of their games by principle but DA: Inquisition is a really good game and I got it the day after I pirated it.

          Make games for gamers and I buy it make games to make money then il pirate it and usually turns out to be crap boring formulated shit.

          Reply

    • Skyblue

      November 26, 2014 at 11:50

      LOL!

      Reply

  4. Viking Of Divinity

    November 25, 2014 at 13:46

    I’m ready. My Wallet is prepped, My wishlist populated, My Paypal on Standby…. Bring on the Sale!

    Reply

  5. Captain JJ the fair

    November 25, 2014 at 14:26

    That’s fine. I don’t even bother with the trading forums anyway. But gifting is something that I quite enjoy on Steam.

    Reply

  6. Sir Rants A Lot is a DADDY

    November 25, 2014 at 14:42

    Oh please. It’s just so that you don’t feel hurt when your one and only steam friend trades away a game you bought for them like an unwanted b-day present

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief Wang

      November 25, 2014 at 14:56

      You have more than one steam friend???

      Reply

      • Sir Rants A Lot is a DADDY

        November 25, 2014 at 15:00

        Lol

        Reply

    • Corrie

      November 25, 2014 at 14:57

      It’s understandable if you gave them ,super hexagon defy gravity or bad rats

      But seriously you don’t have many steam friends? ,

      Reply

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      November 25, 2014 at 15:22

      If I’d known you could trade away gifts I wouldn’t have DOTA in my games list.

      Reply

  7. B3ware_za

    November 25, 2014 at 16:02

    People used to trade(gift) games and keys regularly in Team Fortress 2. Back then the trading options was pretty limited, compared to what we have now. Also most items in game wasn’t sell-able(marketable) so the only way you could get value for the items you had, was by trading it for a game or a key(s). Luckily Steam improved on the whole market idea.

    I also have a friend that traded a game for an item of same worth. They trader revoked the sale a day later and he lost the game from his account due to no payment(according to him). So it’s pretty much there to stop them scams and what you mention OP etc.

    Reply

  8. Mathias

    November 25, 2014 at 17:45

    Fuck.

    Steam trading is one of the best ways to get cheap games. Say goodbye to new releases, at least for a month.

    Reply

  9. Ross Woofels Mason

    November 25, 2014 at 18:14

    Oh god. It is that time of year again *gets the lube*

    Reply

  10. Rly Idk

    November 26, 2014 at 21:10

    i’m sorry, but this is fucking bullshit

    Reply

  11. Sakura Umi

    November 27, 2014 at 21:50

    Check G2A website https://www.g2a.com/r/stockroom. They have good prices and a large assortment.

    Reply

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