New requirement for purchasing backgrounds w/ points?

[^4AR^5200]

Since when was the new requirement for purchasing profile backgrounds implemented? I tried to buy one of the God of War backgrounds and I got a message saying 'You cannot purchase this because you either don't own the associated title or do not have at least two hours of playtime.' Since when was this a thing?! I own many animated backgrounds that I don't even own the games for and I've never had this problem!

[J4MESOX4D]

It's an opt-in by the developer for the points shop items. Some allow all users to purchase items with points without owning the game whereas others require you to own it. If the background is available on the Steam market then you can always buy it there with wallet funds,

[my new friend]

Originally posted by AR200:

I tried to buy one of the God of War backgrounds and I got a message saying 'You cannot purchase this because you either don't own the associated title or do not have at least two hours of playtime.' Since when was this a thing?!

Always.

[^4AR^5200]

Originally posted by J4MESOX4D:

It's an opt-in by the developer for the points shop items. Some allow all users to purchase items with points without owning the game whereas others require you to own it. If the background is available on the Steam market then you can always buy it there with wallet funds,

Oh okay, it just confused me due to owning the Nekopara backgrounds and not owning the game. I didn't know this was an opt-in by developers. Thanks for clearing that up!

[Crazy Tiger]

Items exclusive to the points shop are free for everybody. That are the animated backgrounds, mini backgrounds, avatars and avatar frames, for example.
The stuff you can also get in the community market, static backgrounds and emoticons, those have the restrictions of game ownership and 2 hours playtime.

The latter restriction has been put in because people were buying games and refunding them to buy the emoticons and static backgrounds in the points shop.

The restriction is not opt-in, it's set by Steam: https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/marketing/tradingcards

Steam Points Shop

With the introduction of the Points Shop, there is now a more direct way for users to acquire these items. Users must own the product and have at least two hours worth of playtime in it before they can redeem Steam Points for emoticons or static profile backgrounds.

[Vinny]

I have just over 100 hours in Planetary Annihilation and the rewards page is still telling me I need to own the game to get the items...I bought it years ago! with well over 2 hours!

[Mike]

This thread was quite old before the recent post, so we're locking it to prevent confusion.