Valve Addresses 12,000 Erroneous MW2 Steam Bans, Gives Free Left 4 Dead 2

Valve is offering free copies of Left 4 Dead 2 to Steam users who have recently found themselves banned from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 due to a glitch. The erroneous bans have since been reversed, and company president Gabe Newell sent an apology letter to those affected. According to Newell, the bans affected about 12,000 users over a two-week period, many of whom publicized the issue via forum discussions and tips to consumer news sites. Each affected user received an email from Newell explaining the tech snafu and offering two free Left 4 Dead 2 games, with one that can be gifted to a friend. "This was our mistake, and I apologize for any frustration or angst it may have caused you," wrote Newell in his letter, published by numerous consumer media outlets including Kotaku. "The problem was that Steam would fail a signature check between the disk version of a DLL and a latent memory version," he explained. "This was caused by a combination of conditions occurring while Steam was updating the disk image of a game." Newell clarified that the error wasn't something inherent to Modern Warfare 2, and said Steam allows Valve to identify and reverse erroneous bans. He said affected users who did not already own a copy of Left 4 Dead 2, the latest in the company's popular multiplayer zombie shooter franchise, would find a copy already waiting for download in their library, and that they could access a code to share with a buddy via Steam's gift and guest pass management center.