According to Digital Trends, the Epic Games Store has finally launched its long-awaited gifting feature after years of being behind competitors. Users can now buy paid games, editions, and eligible bundles to send directly to friends on their Epic Friends list. Gifts can be scheduled for future delivery or sent instantly with custom messages, and purchases earn up to 20% in Epic Rewards that can be used for future gifts. If recipients already own the game or don’t accept within 14 days, purchases are automatically refunded. The feature currently works only within the same region, with cross-region support planned for later. You can check out the official announcement for all the details.
Better Late Than Never
Here’s the thing – Epic has been building this massive user base with those weekly free game drops for years, but they’ve been missing this basic social feature that Steam has had forever. It always felt weird that you could get all these free games but couldn’t easily share paid titles with friends. Now they’re finally catching up, and honestly, the implementation looks pretty solid.
The scheduling feature is actually smarter than what some competitors offer. Want to surprise someone on their birthday next month? You can buy the gift now and set it to deliver automatically. No more forgetting important dates because you were too busy gaming. And the 20% rewards on gift purchases? That’s basically free money to buy more games. Who doesn’t love that?
What You Can’t Gift
Now, there are some limitations worth noting. Free games, pre-purchases, subscriptions, and in-game currency are all excluded from gifting. Basically, if it doesn’t cost real money upfront, you probably can’t gift it. The regional restriction is the biggest hurdle right now – if your gaming buddy lives in another country, you’ll have to wait for that cross-region support Epic mentioned is coming.
But honestly, these limitations make sense from a business perspective. Epic wants to prevent abuse of the system while still making gifting accessible for most users. The automatic refunds for unaccepted gifts or duplicate purchases are actually consumer-friendly features that prevent wasted money.
Why This Matters
Look, gaming is inherently social, even when you’re playing solo. Being able to easily share games with friends strengthens those connections and makes the whole ecosystem more sticky. When you gift someone a co-op game, you’re not just giving them a product – you’re inviting them to play with you.
This move also puts Epic on more equal footing with Steam in terms of social features. As industry observers have noted, these kinds of quality-of-life improvements matter when platforms are competing for user loyalty. It’s not just about who has the better games library anymore – it’s about who provides the better overall experience.
What’s Next
So what does this mean going forward? I’d expect to see more developers enabling gifting on their bundles and add-ons now that the infrastructure is in place. The cross-region support will be huge when it arrives, making Epic truly global in its gifting capabilities.
For now, if you’ve got friends in the same region, head over to any game page and look for that new “Buy as Gift” button. It’s about time we could easily share our favorite games without jumping through hoops. And let’s be honest – we all have that one friend who needs to play that game we’ve been raving about.
