How to gift games to friends on PlayStation 5

The PlayStation 5 is the ultimate gift for any PlayStation fan.

Getting one for your loved ones may end up being more challenging than one would expect, however, since the demand for the console is through the roof. Most retailers are struggling to keep up with pre-orders. Just like during the launch period of previous consoles, scalpers are going rampant, and it’s certainly less than ideal to pay two times the price of a regular PS5.

Whether your giftee already has a PS5 or is playing the waiting game to purchase it from a retailer, you can still gift them games. This allows them to jump straight into the action when they get their console or lose themselves in an epic story right away if they already have a PS5.

The launch period aside, gifting games is one of the best ways to make a console owner happy since a triple-A title can cost around $70 and buying them separately can slowly add up. You don’t have to think about a theme either while getting a game, since a quick Google search to see the new releases and how hyped they are should be more than enough to make a decision. You’ll be the cool gifter of each birthday, special occasion, or anniversary by gifting games.

Here’s how you can gift games for that PS5 user on your shopping list.

How to digitally gift games to friends on PS5

Though you can share your entire library of games with your friends on PS5, you can’t send games as a gift to them. The feature exists on other platforms like Steam, but Sony hasn’t made it possible to gift digital games for generations now.

There are still a couple of ways you can try to keep your gift as a surprise, however.

Buy games with your account to share with your friend later

If you own a PS5, you can purchase the game and add it to your account to later share it with your friend. You’ll own the title, but your friend will also have full access to the game.

Note that you’ll need to give your login details to your friend so they can download the games on your account to their system, so doing this for  someone that you don’t know well may end up being a security problem.

We recommend activating two-factor authentication before sharing your account with anyone since you’ll receive a verification code to authorize all login attempts.

Alternatively, if you are sharing a PS5 with your giftee you can also login into their user to buy the game on their account. Simply switch users on your PS5 and head over to the PlayStation Store.

Get your credit cards ready and try to execute this process hours or a day before the expected gift-exchange date. There’s nothing wrong with buying the games early, but if they’re on their consoles every day, the chances are they’ll notice that new shiny title sitting in their library.

Gift them PlayStation Store gift cards

Going full James Bond to purchase a game as a gift may end up being too overwhelming. If that’s the case, you can easily buy them a PlayStation Store gift card and call it a day.

Note that there are a total of seven PlayStation Store gift cards, and most recent triple-A titles cost around $70. If you have a game in mind, find out how much it goes for on the PlayStation Store and match its price with gift cards.

Here are all the PlayStation Store gift cards:

• $10 
• $20
• $25
• $50
• $60
• $75
• $100
• PlayStation Plus: One-month membership
• PlayStation Plus: Three-month membership
• PlayStation Plus: 12-month membership
  • While PS Plus purchases won’t include any recent triple-A titles most of the time, the subscription gifts two free games to users every month. This means that if you were to get a three-month PS Plus membership to someone, you’d essentially get them six mystery games.

Gift them physical game copies for PS5

Gifting digitally involves less groundwork compared to buying hard copies. If you don’t want to be the person who only gives out gift cards, then you can opt-in for getting a physical copy of the game that you’d like to surprise your giftee with.

Note that not all PS5 variants will have disc inputs. The digital-only version of the console won’t be able to read a disc, so you’ll need to make sure that your friend has the standard version of PS5.

If you’ve got that covered, getting the hard copy of the game is the easier part. You can walk down to your local gaming shops or order online. In any case, you’d like to send a gift to someone living far away with this method. You can try the latter and give out their address before you confirm your purchase.

Make sure to look for an option that asks if you’d like your item to be gift-wrapped just to add to the experience.