Photo Courtesy: Steam |
It is believed that Valve’s new policy is to ensure that the user is an actual gamer or not.
It is said that once the new policy gets implemented, current and new users will find huge restriction on their Steam accounts. However, those people who have spent $5 in the past or more in the store won’t have to face such restriction.
Although, people can play games without paying $5, they cannot send friend invitations, open a group chat, vote on Greenlight, Steam Reviews and Workshop items, participate in the Steam Market, post frequently in the Steam Discussions, gain Steam Profile Levels (Locked to level 0) and Trading Cards, submit content on the Steam Workshop, post in an item's Steam Workshop Discussions, access the Steam Web API, use browser and mobile chat.
Tom Sykes, who writes for PC Gamer, wrote that if anyone has 200 Steam games on his/her game library, then he/she won’t face restrictions. But, the new policy would affect people who only use Steam with disc-based retail games.
He added that by activating retail game on Steam won't prevent account restrictions. People can use buy different features by their own currency. Their currency will be converted into dollars using daily exchange rates.