You can now gift games on the Epic Games Store. Epic announced its intention to add gifting earlier this year during its State of Unreal presentation. That presentation also revealed that pre-loading was coming to EGS, and this much-requested feature arrived at the very end of September.

Epic boss Tim Sweeney admitted that “Epic Games Launcher is clunky” earlier this year, and it’s clear that the company is determined to develop a much more feature-packed platform. Rival game distributor Steam has had game gifting for well more than a decade (as far back as 2007, according to this forum post), so it’s nice to see Epic catching up in yet another respect.

Gifting games to friends also earns you rewards

Epic notes that gifting games to friends will also reward the gifter, in the form of Epic Rewards. This is essentially a loyalty program that gives you 20% back when you use Epic’s payment system. You can use this credit balance for further gifts, game add-ons, and more. The program was previously set at 5%, but Epic has upped this to 20% until January 8, 2026.

There are some obvious limitations with gifting, including the ability to gift free games – so you can’t just build up Epic Rewards by ‘gifting’ the latest weekly free promotion on EGS. Eligible games have a ‘Gift’ button below ‘Buy Now’ on the store page.

What You Can Gift
Gifting supports paid games, editions, durable add-ons, and eligible bundles. The following are not eligible:

• Free games
• Pre-purchase offers
• Subscriptions
• In-game currency or other consumable items

Source: Epic Games

Many people may effectively use EGS as a Fortnite launcher, but the platform does have some great benefits. The weekly free games promotions are the most obvious ones for consumers, and Epic is also doing a lot to entice game developers to use its platform. This includes an announcement earlier this year that they no longer charge commission on the first $1,000,000 earned.

About the Author

Jack Goodall

At PC Guide, Jack is mostly responsible for reporting on hardware deals. He also specializes in monitors, TVs, and headsets and can be found putting his findings together in a review or best-of guide.