• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.

Why is gifting a game still not standard on most digital game stores?

TheDutchSlayer

TheDutchSlayer

Did you find it? Cuez I didn't!
Member
Oct 26, 2017
6,995
The Hauge, The Netherlands
Now that Devision 2 was very cheap this week wanted to gift the game to a friend on PSN but nope.

PSN
Switch Eshop
Epic Game Store
Uplay

All of them don't have an option to gift games to other accounts.

The Wii 2 gens ago had the option to gift a game but this gen only xbox added the option to gift games.
Yes I do understand the potential for fraud, but that is not a good reason to not have the option right?

Seriously hope that next gen will make a real effort to change this.

[edit] saw a typo and added the fact that xbox did add the option this gen as the only major console holder to do so.
 
Last edited:
dosh

dosh

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,252
I've been waiting for the PSN to offer gifting for years now. I guess there are several issues, such as regions, but at least allow me to gift a game through your store to a friend who lives in the same country.
 
Ravelle

Ravelle

Member
Oct 31, 2017
17,764
You can share accounts on PSN at least, I've been sharing games with a friend for years now and it's been great.
 
Hilarious_Bearious

Hilarious_Bearious

Member
Nov 4, 2017
7,352
I imagine part of it is Sony not wanting to have to deal with somebody's dad who just owns the console for an annual sports title and uses the password "Password1" with no 2FA getting "hacked" and a bunch of games bought for other accounts.

It would be my dad.
 
Tunesmith

Tunesmith

Fraud & Player Security
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
1,936
A lot of backend work for something that is generally underused by the user base, so it's not surprising it took a backseat to other features for those platforms.

Also an easy fraud attractor, but you mentioned this.
 
Jason Frost

Jason Frost

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,790
There should also be the option to gift DLCs, microtransactions or even money for those digital game stores.
 
Ravelle

Ravelle

Member
Oct 31, 2017
17,764
ItsTonyB said:
It says in the TOS that you can and that's its the equivalent of hacking into someone's account.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Do they match IP address to enforce this? Not that I still to this because I'm barely behind my PS4 these days but I'm curious how they they can tell if it's used in the same household or not.
 
Saikyo

Saikyo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,332
Make 2FA mandatory and that you need to be 2 or 3 months friends with the target account...
 
MakgSnake

MakgSnake

Member
Dec 18, 2019
608
Canada
One of the best features that is available for Xbox One.

I have gifted so many games to my friends, and even on BDays and Xmas, I usually give games as gifts to my friends.

Hopefully for PS5, we will get that feature as well.
 
Lobster Roll

Lobster Roll

signature-less, now and forever
Member
Sep 24, 2019
34,320
Not only can you gift games on Xbox, you can use Gameshare to get every single game, Xbox Live, and Gamepass all for half price. It's such a great feature that not enough people talk about.
 

Sprat

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,684
England
Ravelle said:
Do they match IP address to enforce this? Not that I still to this because I'm barely behind my PS4 these days but I'm curious how they they can tell if it's used in the same household or not.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
No idea. Not seen anything about people being banned it just says you can be for sharing your login details
 
Ravelle

Ravelle

Member
Oct 31, 2017
17,764
ItsTonyB said:
No idea. Not seen anything about people being banned it just says you can be for sharing your login details
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Which is strange because family and friends logging in on your PS4 with Their profile to play games together is normal.

Nobody is deleleting their profile when they go home or being extra secretive when logging in when at Friends and families.
 
CommodoreKong

CommodoreKong

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,695
I wonder how much extra money Valve has made on people gifting games to someone who never would have bought it otherwise.
 

Sprat

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,684
England
Ravelle said:
Which is strange because family and friends logging in on your PS4 with Their profile to play games together is normal.

Nobody is deleleting their profile when they go home or being extra secretive when logging in when at Friends and families.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I've never logged on at a friend's and vice versa we just use the guest profile for coop but Sony that we also usually do something other than gaming.
 
Achtung

Achtung

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,035
I gifted the division 2 to 3 of my friends on Xbox... at $3 a pop it's a no brainer. Love the option and all digital stores should have it.
 
SavoyPrime

SavoyPrime

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,180
North Carolina USA
It's definitely frustrating that the PSN Store has a wishlist feature, yet you can gift anything to your friends. If I can't buy my friend anything, them having a visible wishlist is useless. Hoping Sony will make game gifting a thing on PS5.
 
KDR_11k

KDR_11k

Banned
Nov 10, 2017
5,235
Ravelle said:
Do they match IP address to enforce this? Not that I still to this because I'm barely behind my PS4 these days but I'm curious how they they can tell if it's used in the same household or not.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I doubt they can track any but the egregious cases (e.g. if someone tried to arrange that publicly). Even IP addresses wouldn't make sense since you might have a second home?
 
Arthands

Arthands

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
8,039
That's why I said some digital store is a league ahead of many other stores. Its been a standard feature since 2013 on a certain store and atill not a standard for other stores in 2020
 
You must log in or register to reply here.