Overview
- Valve rolled out the changes on July 22–23, 2026, introducing custom, user-named wishlist categories with category-scoped sharing and tailored notifications.
- Shared wishlist links can target a single category, remain viewable even if the rest of the wishlist is private, and owners can revoke those links at any time.
- Guest checkout now works for any game so people without a Steam account can buy gifts from a shared wishlist or send a gift to an email address that the recipient can claim.
- Steam will calculate recipient-region prices at checkout for cross-region gifts when the recipient’s account is known, and email gifts automatically refund after 30 days if unclaimed.
- Coverage and community response praise the convenience but flag practical risks such as scams, unclaimed or refunded email gifts, and possible regional-pricing exploitation that Valve’s safeguards will need to address in practice.