Epic Games Store Gets a Highly Requested Feature at a Perfect Time

The Epic Games Store is finally getting a long-requested gifting feature, and just in time for the holiday season. The Epic Games Store has continued to improve since its launch, with this just being one of the new features that has recently been added to the game distribution platform.

By and large, most PC gamers are using digital distribution platforms to acquire their games. Over the years, services like Origin, Steam, Epic Games Store, and even Amazon have attempted to vie for gamers’ wallets, with varying levels of success. Origin was sunsetted in favor of the EA App, while Amazon had to admit that it had failed to “disrupt” Steam. Epic Games Store, on the other hand, is still chugging along, and gradually adding new options and features to keep players on the service.

Epic Games Store Reveals Gifting Function

Epic Games Store has revealed that it has now added the ability to give gifts to players on the game distribution platform. Players are now able to send purchased games directly to players on their Epic friends list, with some specifics and caveats. Buyers will still be granted Epic Rewards for their purchases, and they can use that balance to redeem gifts. However, free games, pre-purchase offers, subscriptions, and in-game currency or microtransactions can’t be gifted to other players on the platform.

Epic Games has also outlined how players can send gifts, and it’s a fairly straightforward process.

• After finding a game that the user wants to gift, they should choose “Buy as Gift”
• This will open the friends list, upon which players should select which friend they want to send it to.
• If the buyer wishes to, they can set the delivery date for the game, up to two weeks after they complete the purchase.
• With the transaction complete, the receiving player will receive a notice on the Epic Games Store platform that they have received a gift. If they have email alerts turned on, they’ll also receive a notice there regarding the received gift.
• In the event that the recipient doesn’t want the game or already has it, the purchase will be refunded to the gifter.

As noted, this is just the most recent feature to arrive on the Epic Games Store that players have been requesting for a long time. In early October, the Epic Games Store added the ability to preload games before they’re available to play. As players have come to expect on other platforms, this means that players don’t have to wait around on release day for their downloads to finish, and on the platform’s side, it may help to reduce strain on launch day by reducing the number of players actively trying to download at once.

Since Epic Games Store opened way back in 2018, players have been clamoring for the gifting feature to be added for a long time. While many likely would have preferred for it to have come out a long time ago, it’s arguably better late than never.