Valve changes rules around Steam gift trading

Steam gift trading is changing, which could be important if that's a thing you do.

First things first: general gifting remains the same. You can buy a game directly for a person, who can then redeem and access it immediately.

Gifts purchased and placed in the purchaser's inventory, however, will be subject to a thirty day wait before that game is available to trade. Here's what Valve has to say about the new rule:

"We've made this change to make trading gifts a better experience for those receiving the gifts. 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."

Essentially, Valve is trying to reduce instances of charge-back scams and similar—where games were bought with a credit card; traded on, potentially multiple times; and then charged back, forcing Valve to revoke the original game.

TOPICS

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.