If you’re looking for ideas of what to buy people this Christmas, Xbox might have you covered. The Game Gifting feature is now available to all Xbox users, allowing you to purchase any game on the Marketplace, which then sends a digital code over to your chosen recipient.
The feature has been available for Inside Program members since October, but has sneakily been added to everyone. Just in time for Black Friday too. Convenient that, isn’t it? No better time to buy 3 copies of a game for your mates so they have no excuse but to play it with you. Nothing like a bit of guilt-tripping between friends.
https://twitter.com/XboxQwik/status/930293450926206976
Of course, it wouldn’t be a fan-requested update without some form of caveat, and this is no exception. According to Windows Central, the games that you gift are locked to the region of the gifter. For example, games bought in the United States can only be redeemed in the United States. What’s worse is that Microsoft are doing little to promote this problem. Aside from a small note when you make your purchase, there’s no warning.
There is, of course, a loophole. If the recipient switches region on their console when they redeem the code, then things should work as normal, but the fact that the system is region locked to begin with is frustrating.
Perhaps this is Microsoft’s effort to stop people from buying games cheaper using price differences between countries to get games on the cheap, but seeing how it’s so easy to just switch regions anyway, what’s the point? Steam has allowed players to gift games across the world for years now with no issue, despite any differences in currency across games.
Whilst the implementation of a game gifting is welcomed, this is clearly an area that needs addressing? Have you ran into this problem with game gifting? Sound off in the comments.
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