Steam restricts functionality to users who have not spent money

Steam restricts the Community functionality of users who have not yet spent a minimum of 5 dollars, currently about 4.63 euros, on the service. With the measure, Valve hopes to prevent abuse such as phishing and sending spam.

This includes sending invites to friends, opening group chats, and voting on Greenlight, Steam Reviews, and Workshop items. Valve reports this on its site. In addition, users with limited accounts will no longer be able to participate in the Steam Market, the publishing of messages in Steam Discussions will be restricted, they will not be able to access the web API, and will not be able to use browser and mobile chats until they reach the minimum. amount spent.

The measure is intended to protect users against spam and phishing. “Malicious users often use accounts with no money spent. We can compare the spending pattern to distinguish the regular from the malicious users,” explains Valve.