Having trouble with Steam not letting you gift games to friends or family? This can be a frustrating situation, especially if you want to take advantage of discounts or impress someone with details. The most common error is: “An unexpected error occurred. The purchase was not completed. Contact the Steam Support Team.”
But don’t worry, in this article we will explain all the reasons why Steam blocks the option to give games and how to fix them.
6 reasons why it does not allow you to give games on Steam
Steam is a very strict platform that does everything possible to prevent abuse of the store. As a result, they have implemented several restrictions to prevent the gifting option on Steam from being used for purposes that harm the store and game developers. There are many reasons why gifting a game on Steam can be problematic, and we’ll show you all of them below.
You cannot give away a pre-purchased Steam game
The first reason is that the game you want to donate is already in the recipient’s library. In order to avoid duplicates and fraud, Steam does not allow the person to give away the existing games. In this case, it is better to check with the recipient whether they have the game or not before purchasing the game.
Of course, if you bought the game, but did not (and did not get it in another way), Steam should allow you to give the game. If this is your case, the problem must be something else.
You cannot give a package of 4 games or more
Steam allows you to offer bundles that include multiple games, but with limitations. If the package you want to give away contains 4 or more games, Steam will not allow you to give it away. It tells you that this package is customized for you (specifically for your region), so it cannot be sent to anyone else.
In my personal experience, I have come across bundles with less than 4 games that cannot be gifted, so I guess this store rule is not universal and there are exceptions. Please note that some game packs are only available for certain regions and may not be available for accounts in a specific region.
The recipient’s account is in a different region than yours.
The third reason is that the game you want to play has a regional limit. This means that it can only be activated in certain countries or regions, and if the recipient is in a different location than you, you will not be able to receive the gift. This usually happens with games that have different prices or versions depending on the market. To avoid this problem, you can check the game’s Steam page and see if there are any warnings about regional restrictions.
Note that this problem occurs not only with games that are censored in some countries, but also with games that have no region restrictions, because the price difference between your region and the destination is 10%. Or more, it can not be given, because Steam thinks that you are taking advantage of regional prices to buy cheaply.
The recipient is not old enough to accept the gift.
The fourth reason is that the game you want to give as a gift is limited by age. Some games contain violent or sexual content suitable for adults only, and Steam verifies the recipient’s age before sending the gift.
If the recipient is a minor or does not enter their date of birth in the Steam, they cannot accept the gift. To fix this, you can ask the recipient to update their age information on Steam or ask them to choose another game that is more suitable for their age.
You may be abusing the gift system.
If Steam detects suspicious activity, it will not allow you to give away games for a certain period of time. What is “suspicious activity”? Giving away multiple games in a row or giving away multiple games at the same time to different accounts, essentially.
This may seem normal to you, but Steam systems will make you think that someone has taken over your account and is spending money that you don’t want to, so they disable the option to send a gift just in case.
The store is full.
During big promotions and sales events on Steam, it’s common for the gift system to crash and give you an error. Many people take advantage of these opportunities to offer games at reasonable prices, which causes the Steam servers to have more traffic than usual, becoming saturated and unable to process your purchases. In this case, the solution is simple: try again.
Try to buy the gift on Steam during peak hours in your region (ie morning or midnight).
What to do if Steam won’t give you a game
These were the main reasons for Steam banning games from giveaways, but there are other possible reasons, such as technical or connectivity issues.
If none of the above solutions help you, you can contact Steam customer support and explain your situation. If you don’t want to go to Steam Support, you can try these solutions:
Buy gift cards on Steam. You can give the amount of money that the game spends on steam to your friend, which you want to give him, so that he himself can buy it from his account. The good thing about Steam gift cards is that they don’t have any regional restrictions, because Steam automatically changes the money when they are transferred. Buy the game key from a third-party store. There are many stores that sell Steam keys that you can buy and send to your friends. The recipient just needs to follow this tutorial on how to redeem Steam codes from the Android app to receive the gift in their account. In which stores can I buy keys? Well, the most popular and reliable ones are Humble Bundle, Fanatical, Gamesplanet, Eneba, Kinguin, Inside Gaming, CDKeys, etc. Use another account to gift the game. You can exceed the limit of your account by using another. For example, you can borrow the bill from a friend or family member to send the gift, and pay for it in real money. However, do not use a newly created account to send a gift because Steam detects suspicious activity.
We hope we’ve helped you better understand how the Steam gift system works and help you solve any problems you may have with it.
More information | Steam support page
Can you give away a previously purchased steam game?
You cannot gift a Steam game that you have purchased and activated on your account. Currently, there is no option to save a game to your inventory to send to someone else later.
However, you can buy a game you already own to give as a gift. All you have to do is add it to the cart and select the “buy as a gift” option at checkout.
Can you donate a game on Steam without being a friend?
It can’t be done. When you buy a game as a gift on Steam, the store will only show you a list of your friends to send to one. So you can’t send a gift to someone you sent as a friend on Steam. If you want to send it to someone who isn’t on your list, you’ll need to add them to your Steam friends list first.
What happens if I don’t receive a gift on Steam?
If you don’t accept a gift on Steam, the cost of the game will be refunded to the sender. Once you reject the gift, you can’t accept it again, so don’t take it as a joke.
