Steam has rolled out a welcome update that makes buying games as gifts much simpler. The new Steam cross region gifting feature removes old limits and gives players more ways to share games with friends around the world.

Steam Cross Region Gifting Removes Old Limits

One of the biggest changes is that Steam now allows users to send games to friends in different regions. In the past, gifting was limited because game prices were different in many countries. This meant some players could not send gifts to friends living in another region.

With Steam cross region gifting, those restrictions have been relaxed. Players can now buy games for friends in supported regions without the old regional barriers.

Steam has also updated how prices work. If the game costs more in the recipient’s country, the buyer will pay that local price during checkout. Valve has not confirmed whether buyers will pay a lower price if the recipient lives in a region where the game is cheaper.

Guest Checkout Is Now Available

Another useful addition is guest checkout. People no longer need a Steam account to purchase a game as a gift. They can complete the purchase as a guest, making it easier for family members or friends who do not use Steam regularly.

Once the payment is complete, Steam will send the gift to the recipient by email, just like before. The process remains simple while giving buyers more flexibility.

A Better Experience for Players

The new Steam cross region gifting update is good news for players who enjoy gaming with friends across different countries. It removes one of the biggest problems with gifting and makes the process much more convenient.

Guest checkout is another welcome improvement, especially for people who only want to buy a game as a present without creating a Steam account. Together, these changes make gifting on Steam easier and more accessible than before.

As online gaming continues to connect players around the world, updates like this help make sharing games with friends a smoother experience.

Recently, Valve made the official announcement that they would no longer be selling physical Steam gift cards at retailers, claiming that scammers were to blame for this decision. Promising “an even better experience” moving forwards however, Valve has now officially detailed its new Steam wishlists and gifting and improvements.

Taking to their blog to make the announcement, Valve officially unveiled their new improvements to gifting games on Steam, writing:

“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.”

With that, the full list of improvements being made is as follows:

• Guest Checkouts can be used to purchase any game on Steam (previously limited to giftcards and hardware)
• You can now gift games to a user’s email instead of Steam account
• Cross-region gifting improvements (wherein Steam will calculate the cost in your friend's region at checkout)
• You can now purchase and gift someone a game directly from their wishlist

All of these features tie in nicely with Steam’s other major update – that being the overhaul to wishlists. Full details on this aspect can be found HERE, but in essence, Steam now allows you to add categories to your wishlist for far greater levels of organisation and clarity.

All-in-all, this latest update to Steam is highly welcome and should make the act of buying games (for yourself or someone else) far more seamless.

KitGuru says: What do you think of this latest update? Did Steam wishlists need improving? What other features would you like to see added? Let us know down below.

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Not just Arc G3-based handhelds, but the classic older-gen gaming handhelds are reaching a nearly $1000 price tag, resulting in reduced sales. Steam Deck Reportedly Lost Significant Momentum After Recent Price Hike With Sales Estimated to Have Declined By 82% Steam Deck has been Valve's most successful product in recent years, consistently ranking among Steam's best-selling products since launch. However, a new analysis by Boiling Steam suggests that the handheld's sales have been impacted significantly following its recent price hike, which has also affected almost every gaming handheld that exists in the market. According to the report, the Steam Deck […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/steam-deck-sales-reportedly-crater-82-after-valves-price-hike-slipping-from-5th-to-14th-on-steam/

Palworld has officially launched out of early access and players have returned in huge numbers. The game first exploded in popularity back in early 2024, debuting with a peak of more than 2.1M concurrent players, but interest naturally declined as PocketPair shifted focus toward long‑term development. Now, with version 1.0 finally available, Palworld has surged back to near‑record heights once again.

According to Steam Charts, Palworld has seen a dramatic resurgence over the past month. The game reached a peak of 956,613 concurrent players in the last 30 days, representing a 733% increase compared to June.

This marks Palworld’s strongest performance since its early access launch, where major updates routinely pushed the game back into the hundreds of thousands before numbers settled again. Throughout 2024 and early 2025, player counts fluctuated significantly, dropping from the initial 2.1M peak to tens of thousands as players waited for the full release.

With version 1.0 now available, Palworld’s player base has rallied in a way few early access titles manage. The renewed momentum also arrives at a time when PocketPair appears to have navigated its legal dispute with Nintendo successfully. Despite accusations of patent infringement earlier in development, the situation has largely resolved in PocketPair’s favour, so the future looks bright for the game.

KitGuru Says: Have you returned to Palworld since the release of V1.0? 

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Humble Bundles are an excellent way for PC players to get their hands on a wide selection of games for a relatively low price. Celebrating the history of publisher 2K, Humble are now offering a MegaHits Bundle, including the likes of Risk of Rain 2; Borderlands 3; Mafia 2; XCOM and much more.

Unlike a majority of Humble Bundles, the 2K MegaHits bundle is only available to purchase in a single form – where-in paying £13.44 will net you a total of 15 titles:

• XCOM Enemy Unknown
• X-COM: UFO Defense
• The Darkness II
• Hidden & Dangerous trilogy
• Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour
• Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition
• Tales From the Borderlands
• Homeworld Remastered Collection
• Tribes of Midgard Deluxe Edition
• The Quarry
• Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands
• Bioshock Infinite
• Mafia II: Definitive Edition
• Borderlands 3
• Risk of Rain 2

Of course, not every game will be for everyone. Even so, this bundle include plenty of variety, whether it be rogue-likes (Risk of Rain 2); looter-shooters (Borderlands); action-FPS games (The Darkness II, Bulletstorm and Bioshock); choice-based narrative titles (The Quarry); or strategy games (XCOM).

In case you missed it, July’s Humble Choice line-up is still available to claim, including titles such as Neon White, Tunic, Sea of Stars and more. Full details on this month’s Humble Choice offerings can be found HERE.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: What do you think of this latest bundle? Do you plan to pick it up? Have you played The Darkness games before? Let us know down below.

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Prosecutors accused 21-year-old student Zyaire Wilkins of publishing on Steam several fake video games that contained malware, infecting thousands of victims, and stealing crypto from some of them.

While Valve used to be very secretive about Steam Sale dates, nowadays, they publish the schedule well ahead of time. The annual Steam Summer Sale is now behind us, but there are 13 more sale events scheduled on the calendar before the end of the year. 

Aside from the main event sales for Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, Valve also pushes sales for specific gaming niches. Later this month, from July 20th to July 27th, there will be the Steam Train Fest. Then in August, fans can look forward to the Cyberpunk Fest from August 3rd to the 10th, the Pins & Pegs Fest from August 17th to the 20th and the PvE Survival Crafting Fest from August 31st to September 7th.

The Programming Fest will go live from September 10th to the 14th, followed by the Party-Based RPG Fest from September 14th to September 21st. That leads us into the next major Steam Sale, the Autumn Sale, which takes place from October 1st to October 8th.

The Steam Cooking Fest then takes place from October 12th to the 19th, the Next Fest from October 19th to October 26th and then the Steam Scream Fest (Halloween) from October 26th to November 2nd.

The Auto-Battler RPG Fest will take place from November 16th to November 23rd, followed by Black Friday discounts at the end of the month. Then finally, we get the Steam Winter Sale from December 17th until January 4th.

KitGuru Says: Will you be putting any of these upcoming sales on your calendar? What games are you waiting to pick up? 

The post Here is every Steam Sale for the rest of 2026 first appeared on KitGuru.

Monster Hunter Wilds is about to get cheaper. Capcom has announced that the game will receive a permanent price reduction, alongside a full overhaul of its digital editions and DLC bundles.

The announcement confirms that several existing bundles will be discontinued starting from the 4th of August, including the Deluxe Edition, Premium Deluxe Edition and the Cosmetic DLC Pass. Capcom says it is “streamlining the available options” for new players and will introduce new bundles on the same date, including the Monster Hunter Wilds Gold Edition, which packages the base game with all cosmetic DLC released so far.

Capcom also confirmed that the base game will receive a permanent price reduction starting at the same time. The publisher has not yet revealed the new MSRP yet, but we would guess it will drop to around £50 for the base game. Anyone who recently picked up the game during the Steam Summer Sale will likely have received a better price than what the new ‘normal' price will be. While the announcement was made on Steam, it is expected that the price cut will also roll out to the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions of the game.

As far as new DLC bundles go, there will be two. The Cosmetic DLC Collection includes all 10 cosmetic DLC packs released to date, and the Extras Cosmetic DLC Pack bundles a smaller selection of paid cosmetics previously sold individually.

Monster Hunter Wilds launched to mixed reception, with early criticism focused on performance issues and design changes that divided long‑time fans. Sales slowed significantly after launch, but Capcom has since released multiple performance updates. As a result, the game’s English‑language Steam user reviews have risen to Mostly Positive, a notable improvement from the mixed/negative score seen during its release window.

KitGuru Says: Will you be jumping into Monster Hunter Wilds once the lower price arrives?

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Japanese developer PocketPair has just released version 1.0 of Palworld, the game that became an overnight sensation when it launched in early access in January 2024, breaking sales records left and right for a while. Judging by Steam data, it seems like the fever is back. While the game's full version did not go anywhere near the all-time peak of 2.1 million concurrent users registered at the early access launch (a figure that's still the third highest ever recorded on Valve's platform), Palworld nonetheless lured a lot of people back, with the weekend's peak reaching 855K concurrent users. Version 1.0 […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/palworld-1-0-855k-concurrent-players-world-tree/

Valve has rolled out its official compatibility rating system for the Steam Machine and SteamOS, introducing a new user interface element within the Steam store.

Spotted by GamingOnLinux, this update is currently viewable on the Steam store and mobile app. Users can find the new ratings by visiting a game's Steam page, scrolling down to the “Steam Deck Compatibility” section, and clicking the “Learn more” button.

Image credit: GamingOnLinux

After pressing the button, an interface will pop up with three distinct tabs outlining specific requirements for the Steam Deck, Steam Machine, and SteamOS. The Steam Machine tab handles metrics for the Steam Machine Verified program, tracking performance and controller compatibility with default settings. Furthermore, the general SteamOS section indicates whether a game functions through the Proton compatibility layer or requires an active internet connection for initial setup and gameplay.

Hints of an upcoming “Steam Frame Verified” rating system have also appeared for certain titles, though Valve has not yet deployed a final store UI for it.

KItGuru says: Expanding the verification ecosystem to cover the Steam Machine ensures players know exactly how a game will perform before launching it.

The post Valve rolls out SteamOS and Steam Machine verification system first appeared on KitGuru.

Each month, all those with a Humble Choice subscription are privy to a selection of games for a relatively low price. For the month of July, Humble is offering a wide variety of excellent indies, including the likes of Sea of Stars; Tunic and Neon White.

For the grand total of £11.49, all those subscribed to Humble Choice this month will be granted Steam keys for the following:

• Sea of Stars: Sunset Edition
• Tunic
• Neon White
• Police Simulator: Patrol Officers
• Drop Duchy – Complete Edition
• Sledders
• Dicefolk
• Our Adventure Guild

While each of these titles offer value in their own right, there are a couple stand-outs. Neon White is a fun, smooth and fast-paced FPS action-platforming puzzler. While its narrative can be hit-or-miss depending on your personal tastes, Neon White offers highly compelling and replayable gameplay – akin to the likes of Hotline Miami and Ghostrunner.

Tunic meanwhile is a somewhat calm and serene action-adventure title in the vein of classic Zelda games. Featuring beautiful visuals and surprisingly deep puzzle mechanics, Tunic is definitely worth checking out.

As mentioned, all 8 of these titles are available to claim right now, and will remain in your Steam libraries in perpetuity. Subscribers also gain access to Humble’s ‘Vault’ of 50+ DRM-free games.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: What do you think of July’s offerings? Have you checked out Neon White? How does it compare to other ‘one-more-try’ type games? Let us know down below.

The post July’s Humble Choice line-up includes 8 excellent indies first appeared on KitGuru.

As a new studio founded by ex-Witcher Alumni, Rebel Wolves and Bandai Namco allowed us an intimate four hours with the studio’s inaugural title: The Blood of Dawnwalker. While players may have been initially concerned about being rushed with the story’s thirty-day limit, our experience proved that there’s more than enough content here to enjoy the adventure at your own pace. In The Blood of Dawnwalker, players take on the role of Coen, a perfectly normal human male with a single goal: to save his family from the clutches of an ancient vampire lord named Brencis. Our play session saw […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/blood-of-dawnwalker-beyond-witcher-influence/

PlayStation’s PC / Steam initiative has yielded few successes yet plenty of controversies, with one of the primary issues being many of the games’ PSN requirements – locking out potential players from over 100 different countries in which the service is not active. While it seemed as though this issue had been resolved, the upcoming Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls has now run into the exact same problem – currently being blocked in 132 countries.

Marvel Tokon is officially almost upon us, with the tag-team fighting game from PlayStation / Arc System Works set to launch on PlayStation 5 and PC next month in early August. Unfortunately, PC users are once again encountering issues, with SteamDB updates revealing that Marvel Tokon is currently blocked in 132 countries on PC – presumably due to PlayStation Network requirements.

As mentioned, this is far from the first PlayStation game to run into such issues, with Helldivers 2 being the most famous in this regard. In case you forgot, the highly popular co-op shooter did initially launch on Steam globally to great success.

Unfortunately, this was quickly followed by Sony’s PSN requirements, leading to the game no longer working in over 170 countries. After plenty of backlash, Sony reversed course – making this latest decision an odd one to say the least.

All that being said, Marvel Tokon still has roughly a month to go until its release, and so hopefully its current state is merely a matter of logistics and that come the 6th of August, the game is fully available and playable to all.

KitGuru says: What do you think of this latest move? Will it remain this way by launch, or is this just a matter of behind-the-scenes shenanigans? Let us know your thoughts down below.

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For roughly a decade now, video game companies have been trying to crack the game streaming code, with various services popping up allowing players to stream their games in real-time through the likes of xCloud, Nvidia’s Geforce Now and Valve’s Steam Link. While the technology has improved with time, streaming remains far inferior to its native counterparts. Even so, Steam users could soon see major upgrades coming to its services, with the new PyroWave video codec said to be coming to the platform.

First discovered late last month in Steam’s coding (by EOZ VR's Brad Lynch), Valve has now officially announced and introduced PyroWave to its Steam Client beta. Described as a “fast/low-latency GPU encoder” based on Vulkan and designed specifically for games, this new codec focuses on offering high-bandwidth, low-latency streaming – two of the biggest drawbacks seen with current streaming set-ups.

It is worth noting that as of right now, PyroWave is primarily intended to be used for local game streaming over ethernet which is likely why the technology is being embraced by Valve / Steam Link; targeting bitrates of roughly 200 megabits a second.

As mentioned, game streaming in today’s day and age is far from perfect, with plenty of issues including macro-blocking, smearing and of course, input latency making for a subpar experience.

While it will likely never take over as the main method of play, it is encouraging to see new innovations and breakthroughs still being made in the streaming side of things.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: What do you think of game streaming in 2026? Has it become usable? How big of a deal is input latency to you? Let us know down below.

The post Steam Client update introduces new ‘PyroWave’ video codec for low-latency game streaming first appeared on KitGuru.

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is finally launching this month. Ahead of the July 9th release, Ubisoft has now confirmed global launch times for the game, as well as pre‑load dates for PC, PS5 and Xbox.

Pre‑loads will begin earlier on Xbox, with Series X|S users already able to download the game. PS5 and PC players will gain access to pre‑loads on July 7th, with PS5 unlocking at 12am local time and PC pre‑loads going live at 2pm UTC across Ubisoft Connect, Steam and the Epic Games Store.

On launch day, consoles will use a midnight local time rollout worldwide, while PC and GeForce Now will follow a coordinated global schedule. In the US, PC unlocks at 7am PDT on the West Coast and 10am EDT on the East Coast. In the UK, PC players can jump in at 3pm BST, followed by 4pm CEST across Central Europe. Japan will see the PC version unlock at 11pm JST, while Australia and New Zealand will get access at 12am AEST, matching the console timing.

Due to the New Zealand version unlocking at the same time as consoles, the VPN trick should work if you really want to start playing a bit earlier in the day.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Black Flag remains one of the most beloved Assassin’s Creed titles, so I expect this remake to do quite well. Are you planning on returning to Black Flag when the remake drops? 

The post Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced pre-load and unlock times announced first appeared on KitGuru.

It seems that cloud gaming is making headlines once again. A recent viral post from LaurieWired argued that cloud gaming is “obviously more economically efficient than consumer-owned hardware". The logic? A $500 GPU sitting idle for most of its life has terrible cost per FLOP (floating-point operation) per hour efficiency (meaning you paid for lots of GPU power, but most of it sits unused most of the time) compared to datacenter servers shared across countless users. It’s an interesting take, and honestly, there is definitely some truth to it from a pure hardware utilization standpoint. However, that perspective entirely misses […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/is-cloud-gaming-worth-it-in-2026-pros-cons-trade-offs-why-it-still-cant-replace-gaming-pcs/

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II has reached a major milestone, with Warhorse Studios announcing that the game has now surpassed 6 million copies sold worldwide. The sequel launched in early 2025 and quickly became one of the most critically acclaimed RPGs of the generation, earning multiple Game of the Year nominations and taking home the BAFTA Games Award for Best Narrative.

To mark the occasion, the game has joined the Steam Summer Sale, with discounts of up to 60% on the base game and its DLCs. Other titles in the Kingdom Come franchise are also discounted, with some products reduced by as much as 80%.

Warhorse Studios thanked the growing Kingdom Come community for its support, noting that the series’ success has helped fuel the studio’s future ambitions. The team is currently working on two new open‑world RPGs, with one being the next Kingdom Come adventure, and the other set in Middle‑earth.

KitGuru Says: Kingdom Come: Deliverance II was one of my favourite RPGs of last year, so it’s great to see the sequel performing so well. If you haven’t played it yet, the Steam Summer Sale discount makes this a good time to jump in.

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Unlike a majority of CEOs, Epic Games’ Tim Sweeney is rather vocal, sharing his thoughts on industry news via a variety of means. Taking part in a new interview, the CEO commented on Valve’s AI disclosure policy – calling the practice “irresponsible.”

Taking part in an interview with the publication PCGamer, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney was asked about a range of topics, from their recently-announced ‘Team Open’ to Epic’s relationship with Valve. In discussing Steam’s new AI disclosure system – wherein developers must state if and how they used GenAI during game development – Sweeney offered a response typical of a CEO heavily invested in the technology, stating:

“It's unfortunate that so many developers now are put into this position. If you want to launch a game, and get it as widely publicized as possible, you've got to put it on Steam so people can wish list it, and if you want to play it on Steam, then you have to get this Scarlet Letter of AI attached to your product, and now there is a hater community trying to kill the game.”

Sweeney continued, “I think it's really irresponsible of Valve. They shouldn't do it, because it makes it much, much, much harder for a game developer to have a chance of success. You have to choose from either not using tools that can make you way more productive, and probably failing due to competition that does.”

It is worth noting that Sweeney appears to be approaching this question from a single angle, ignoring the wider issues with and implications of GenAI in game development – as well as the fact that many players simply don’t like it.

As mentioned, Epic Games has been increasingly embracing AI in its game development, and so it makes sense that Sweeney would take such a position.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: What do you think of Sweeney’s claims? Do you agree? Should AI disclosures be enforced further? Let us know down below.

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After months of speculation, Valve finally revealed the price of the Steam Machine yesterday, with the base barrier to owning your own GabeCube listed at $1,049 USD. You could go up to $1,428 USD for the version with all of the bells and whistles, but getting your foot in the door will cost over a grand to start. In a new report from GamesIndustry.Biz, the reaction to that price from senior video game industry analysts is a general sense of surprise that it's not worse and disappointment that it's as high as it is. But what it means for next-generation […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/steam-machine-price-analysts-reaction-next-gen-ps6-project-helix-price/