Steam has overhauled gifting of games and gift cards, expanding guest checkout significantly, as Valve announced.

Previously, buying without a Steam account was limited to digital gift cards and hardware. Now any game on Steam can be bought and gifted as a guest - for example through a shared wishlist link, without the buyer needing an account of their own.

Also new is sending gifts by email: games and gift cards can now be sent directly to an email address, even if the recipient’s Steam account isn’t known. The recipient gets a link to accept the gift - unclaimed gifts are automatically refunded after 30 days. Buyer and recipient must live in the same country.

Cross-region gifting has also been simplified: Steam now calculates the price in the friend’s region automatically, so a gift card is no longer needed. This requires an existing Steam friendship.

Steam gifts are a popular way to send copies of games and digital gift cards to friends and family. Today we’re shipping some great new features that improve the gifting experience, making it easier to send both digital gift cards and games.

Guest checkout Now guest checkout can be used to buy any game on Steam. You can send a wishlist share link to a friend or family member and they can purchase gifts directly from that list without needing a Steam account themselves. If a guest wants to send a gift as a surprise they can send it to any email address instead.

Gift to email Both digital gift cards and games can now be sent directly to email recipients. The email will include a link to let them sign in to their account and accept the gift. Please note that any gift email not accepted within 30 days will be automatically refunded, so they cannot be scheduled for future delivery. The recipient of the gift must also live in the same country as the purchaser.

Cross-region gifting Now you can gift games directly to your friend. Steam will calculate the cost in your friend’s region at checkout. Your friend needs to be on your Steam friends list to send this type of gift.

Direct from wishlist You can now send a digital gift card or gift a game directly from someone’s wishlist. You no longer need to be friends on Steam to send gifts. You can create a shared wishlist link that is filtered to specific games.

Source: Steam