This change also impacts developing countries such as Vietnam, Laos, Venezuela, etc. People in these countries have to pay the same price as the US, and pretty much depending on gifting from countries from the same region, for example, Vietnamese players buy a 30$ game from Malaysia market for 22$; or purchasing from grey markets like G2A. This change makes players from these countries either pay a ridiculous amount of money for games (compare to their income) or comes back to pirating like before Steam and grey markets were popular in this countries.

I don't see GOG has any significant gains from this changes unless GOG has better US price/competitive sales. Don't get me wrong I support DRM-free and I think it should be applied for all games, but to compete with other markets, pricing is the main factor.

Can confirmed that, I usually bought my game in a full prize for a game I really want to play from Malaysian users or buy it on sale with my own store credit or bundles. The minimum wage for blue-collar worker are $160 - $200 depend on provinces in Indonesia (the number might be incorrect but I think it's lower than $250) also imagine some of AAA's tittles put $60 for their price tag.

I would bet this is the likely outcome of the new Steam policy.

That's not really it. There are people on steam who are also generous like the way GOG is, running contests and giveaways, where the gifts would obviously need to be stored in the inventory first. And ironically, actual gifting is impacted, as most people (those who are savvy anyway), tend to buy gifts on sales, where they keep and gift the game to their friends/folks..etc.. on the right occasions like Birthdays, Christmas, New years.. etc..

@Topic
I'm not sure how this would affect G2A. They deal in everything grey market, not just a certain part of it. And while I'm not an expert, keys seem to be a bigger portion of the equation. If I'm a buyer, I'd prefer keys. Easier to prove if scammed. A key is given to me upfront or is not. The key either works or it doesn't. Rather than trading shenanigans.

On GOG
1. I think it is still possible to gift keys to countries which have larger prices than base US ones (hi Australia)
2. It's still possible to buy gifts on sales and keep them for later use.

These are no longer possible on Steam with gifts - of course you still can do it with keys bought in another retailers (for how long I wonder...)

Doesn't seem like much of a loss to me. Will stop people abusing the sales and selling the games on when it finishes.

Absolutely. I'm a maniac too, hard to admit, and have like 20+ games stored in my inventory, so there's that! ;P
Haha. I know that a ton of folks on Steam are friendly and all, generous and etc, for sure.

Great news . I hope the G2A / Kinguin marketplaces will die soon .

Then GOG keys get killed too. :P

(EDIT: Okay, I think what I just described is what Steam is actually still keeping, maybe, but people are frustrated about it.) I'm pondering something: would there be any value in a system where users can store, like, an gift in their libraries similar to a key, but not actually a key that can be easily copy-pasted (not like a "AU21-4927-492K" thing) and sold or traded, something that has to be directly gifted from one account to another and can't easily be sold on a storefront. A way to gift but gifting through some hoops to discourage easy mass-distribution of keys. (Am I basically describing what Steam killed just now?) It probably sounds stupid as I type it out. :P

The main thing is being able to give the item away at a later date, not right at purchase, because what if I don't know who I want to give the game to right away? (like a giveaway)

That's one of the things Steam just killed, but mostly people are upset about the code to email bit as I like giving away game codes to games. And now I can't do that in the same fashion. I have to hold my giveaway and buy the game after I pick a winner.

Why would they? Resellers still can buy keys from GMG, Humble etc when on sale and sell them on G2A