Steam key resellers hit by gift rule update

Valve has tweaked the rules imposed on the trading of gifts.

Eurogamer reports that the change is designed to stop scammers who trade illegitimately purchased gifts that are later revoked due to problems with payment.

The process means that the seller retains their cash but those who purchased the game see their access to it revoked.

All new games purchased as a gift and placed in the purchaser’s inventory will be untradable for 30 days. The gift may still be gifted at any time. The only change is to trading,” Valve said.

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.”

The changes do not affect the many key resellers currently operating in the market.