Epic Games has rolled out an update to its PC games store that has been requested for quite a few years. Gifting is now an official feature of the store, letting users purchase and send games to friends directly from game store pages.
"Gifting is live on the Epic Games Store," says the company in its announcement blog post. "Players can now purchase and send games directly to friends on their Epic friends list, making it easier to celebrate special occasions, share favorite titles, or just surprise a friend with a new game."
After selecting the new "Gift" option inside store pages, users can select which friend they want to send the selected game to, as well as set a delivery schedule for later.
Keep in mind that a gift must be accepted by the recipient for it to be added to their account. If it"s not accepted within 14 days, the user already owns it, or it"s declined, Epic will refund the original buyer. Another restriction is that cross-regional gifting is not supported, but Epic says it is working on enabling this.
This is also only active on the PC version of the store and not the recently launched mobile Epic Games Store.
"When you purchase a gift using Epic’s payment system, you’ll earn Epic Rewards on your purchase," adds the company. "Recipients can also use their Epic Rewards balance to redeem gifts, giving players more ways to earn and spend rewards across the Epic Games Store."
Gifting supports paid games, any special editions they might have, DLCs, and bundle offers. What cannot be gifted are free games, games that must be pre-purchased, subscriptions, and in-game currencies.
Gifting first appeared as an in-development feature back in 2019 on Epic Games" development roadmap for the store. Six years later, the functionality is finally available. Check out the handy new FAQ page about the Epic Games Store"s gifting mechanic over here.