Gift cards can now be sent between select Xbox 360 owners

By Matt Brown
published

The latest update to the Xbox 360 Preview dashboard has given users the ability to send digital gift cards to friends over Xbox Live. The feature is now available to members of the Xbox 360 Preview in the United States, Canada, France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Accessed via the newly-introduced 'Send Gift' option on the social twist or a user's profile, the feature allows you to send various credit values to other gamers. This purchase is handled like a standard transaction, before a message containing an option to redeem the digital gift card is sent to the recipient. Credit can be sent in predetermined values, with a minimum gift card value of $10, and a limit of $100.

While some rival gaming networks provide a solution for online gifting, the ability to send products rather than credit is a common trend. This is the first time the feature has appeared on Xbox Live, but can be expected to arrive on the Xbox One at a later date.

Source: Major Nelson

Matt Brown
Matt Brown

Matt Brown was formerly a Windows Central's Senior Editor, Xbox & PC, at Future. Following over seven years of professional consumer technology and gaming coverage, he’s focused on the world of Microsoft's gaming efforts. You can follow him on Twitter @mattjbrown.

19 Comments
  • Cool, I'd love to see them add games and their other services gifting option (Movies, TV and Music) and I'd also love to see them add a wish list option to them too.
  • Talking of region restrictions based on Country currencies, I think Game gifting would have been more reasonable.
  • Since when has the official WinBeta universal app been a thing? Completely missed it and just noticed. Pretty nice actually... Did anybody say UWP Windows Central app??? Lol
  • Where?
  • I know I just noticed it right now too. Still waiting for Windows Central app.
  • Is it Win10 only? I'm not setting it on WP8.1.
  • Yes and all it is, is a web wrapper of the site just inside a UA.
  • Yeah, better than nothing. Valid point though.
  • Why now? Why after ten years is this feature now just appearing on Xbox 360? The mind boggles...
  • Probably as a test bed for Xbox One, though I agree it's surprising either way that it's taken this long.
    Could be due to all of the stolen accounts that were being sold in the past, but now that security has improved e.g. 2 step verification this could be less of a risk.
  • This sounds great. Would be something I'll use for sure.
  • Hopefully the next step is buying games as gifts, a la Steam.
  • That won't be abused by social engineering hackers.
    Another reason I use prepaid cards instead of using my credit card on Xbox Live.
  • This is a feature I'll use. Now (as already mentioned) please add games to gifting too.
  • Would be nice if you could gift an app also, very often the kids ask me for a paid app or an add on and I usually have credit on my Microsoft account but can't use it to buy apps etc. for them so I then have to buy them a prepaid card just to get one app or add on ! I know this is in Microsoft's interest as they make more money that way, but I think it would help app developers more if app gifting was an option.
  • Would MUCH ratehr see game gifting.  Seeing $***credit (like on a physical gift card) get wasted on some stupid crap or rip off in-game currency/pack instead of the game the recipient claimed they wanted to pay with you is a real annoyance, and the reason I never give credit to ppl. If steam has been ablew to do that for 10+ years, why the hell not xbox?
  • Perfect! Last holiday season I was surprised to find out that something like this wasn't in place when it would have worked out great for several gifts. Not sure if it will work cross regions, as I have family outside of the U.S. that I would love to also send a digital gift vs. physical one that has the potential to get lost, so I hope this makes it out of beta.
  • Nice seeing as w8 brought xbl back onto windows
  • Why hasn't the last gen consoles died yet? Posted via the Windows Central App for Android only because the screen on my 1520 broke.