Being able to gift certain Xbox One digital games, Xbox Live Gold, and Xbox Game Pass subscriptions to your friends and family has been around since last fall. Microsoft is not only opening digital game gifting to all Xbox One games but is also enabling PC games and downloadable content like map packs to be gifted.
Microsoft notes that while most PC games on the Microsoft Store should be available for gifting today, all games — PC and Xbox One (sorry, you won’t be able to gift Xbox 360 or original Xbox games yet) — should be giftable starting tomorrow.
Giving a PC or Xbox digital game as a gift is super simple:
- Head over to the Microsoft Store on Windows 10, on the Xbox One family of devices, or online
- Navigate to the product that you would like to purchase
- Select Buy as Gift
- Enter the email address of the gift recipient. On Xbox One, you can choose a Gamertag from your list of Xbox Live friends
- The gift recipient will receive a code for their product along with instructions on how to redeem the code. On Xbox One, gift recipients will receive a system message with a clickable redemption button
There are a few caveats to keep in mind when gifting a digital game:
- Gift purchasers can only buy two discounted products – and a total of 10 discounted products – every 14 days. There are no limits for gift purchases made at full price.
- Gifting of Xbox 360 and Xbox original games, pre-orders, free products, and consumable downloadable game content such as virtual currency is not allowed.
- Gift recipients can only redeem gift tokens in the country or region where they were purchased.
It’s interesting the limit Microsoft is putting on discounted products as that’s when most people would be more inclined to gift a game to a friend. Two within a 14 day period isn’t that bad but only allowing you to gift a total of 10 discounted games seems a bit short-sighted. As well, the inability to gift pre-orders is an odd stipulation as well, especially considering some games have pre-order bonuses or editions with extra goodies.
At any rate, it’s definitely a start and the company is continuing to update the program, including working on the ability to gift paid Xbox and PC apps as well.
What do you think about digital game gifting? Have you gifted someone an Xbox game or subscription in the past? Let us know in the comments below or on Google+, Twitter, or Facebook.
[button link=”https://majornelson.com/2018/05/10/pc-digital-game-gifting-is-here/” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Major Nelson[/button]
