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Changes to Steam gift rules aim to deter resellers

Were you planning to purchase a game on Steam and then trade said game for another this holiday season? Well, you may want to plan ahead. Valve changed the rules regarding how Steam users can trade games purchased as gifts this week, making gifted titles untradeable for 30 days.

"All new games purchased as a gift and placed in the purchaser's inventory will be untradeable for 30 days," Valve wrote in a recent announcement post. "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."

In other words, this is an attempt to curb the number of people who purposefully use fraudulent payment details to buy Steam keys in bulk and sell or trade them away, as users who purchase or trade for such a game have their access revoked once the payment fails.

A gift that is not being traded can still be gifted at any time, Valve clarifies in the post; the only change is to how trades function.

[Image: Valve]