Steam Locking Certain Features Behind Paywall

Last week Valve introduced a new Steam Guard Mobile Authentication process as a means to keep its users safe from phishing attacks, and now it has taken another step in that direction. From here on out, unless you spend a minimum $5 with your account certain features are blocked from use. So whats blocked you ask? Friend invites, opening group chat, the Steam discussion boards and voting on Greenlight games among other things. But, considering that most people use the service for purchasing and playing games, this really should only affect those who're actively using the service.

Valve says that the easiest way to identify malicious users from folks who are genuinely using the service is comparing spending habits to account age. "Typically, the accounts being used for [phishing] have no investment in their longevity," Valve writes. So, if you're a typical Steam user you shouldn't notice a difference aside from a hopeful decrease in spam in your inbox.