Steam Gifting Changes: New Rules On Scheduled, Declined & Cross-Country Gifts Explained

Valve is implementing new rules on the gifting feature of Steam. In a blog post, the company detailed the changes to how users send and receive gifts.

This Thursday, Valve admitted in a new blog post that for some time now there’s been friction in Steam’s gifting process. Thus, the video game company has decided to make some changes to how gifts are sent and received on its digital distribution platform. Valve says these changes will make it easier for users to gift the games they love to their friends. In addition, the company pointed out that what these changes will create is a system of direct exchange between gift buyers and gift receivers.

Scheduled Gifts

Valve is implementing a new guideline that will make scheduling gifts more straightforward for users. In the blog post, the company stated that users may now purchase gifts in advance and have them delivered on time. Valve even noted that they users may do this months prior having the gifts sent.

Declined Gifts

Another great change that is being implemented has to do with gifts that were declined by recipients. Previously, rejected gifts were sent back to the sender’s inventory and they would remain on the latter’s bill. With the new system, the recipients can now decline gifts and the items will be refunded right away to the giver.

Cross-Country Gifts

Part of the Steam gifting changes Valve created is the termination of the Gift to Email and Gift to Inventory options. Without the two options, users will from now on not worry about sending cross-country gifts. The items they send will automatically work on the receiver’s account. Unfortunately, there will be instances when users will not be able to gift games to their friends from other countries. This is especially true when there’s a big difference between the pricing of the game in different countries. When this happens, the gifting option for the item will not be available.

Although Valve has already begun implementing the changes, it stated that pre-existing gifts will not be affected by the new rules. Hence, only items gifted starting today can enjoy the benefits of the Steam gifting changes.

More Changes & Ongoing Improvement

The announcement on the changes to Steam gifting was made just a day after Valve’s John McCaskey published a blog post discussing the platform’s new Support Update Stats page. In his blog post, McCaskey promised to Steam users that they will do better at dealing with issues raised on the distribution platform’s website. This is why the company launched the Steam Support Stats page with the goal of improving its transparency in responding to user complaints.

In this new page, a graph presents the volume of help requests submitted by users. There is also another graph for the backlog of waiting requests. McCaskey revealed that Steam is getting around 75,000 help requests per day at present. Out of that huge bulk, only an estimated 8,000 complaints are left waiting for a response. The most common issues that users raise have to do with refunds, account security and recovery.

In the end, McCaskey expressed that they are working to always improve the experience of Valve’s customers. “We know that reducing wait times and backlogs is not enough on its own, and we’re also committed to continuing to improve the quality of each interaction. We’ve been continuously investing in staffing, training, and process improvements to that end and while we believe we’ve made progress we know there is always more work to be done,” McCaskey finally stated.