Valve apologizes for banning over 12,000 legit Modern Warfare 2 players
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The anti-cheating software embedded in Valve's Steamworks platform recently took on a mind of its own, banning over 12,000 non-cheating Modern Warfare 2 players over the past two weeks. The cause for its insatiable ban lust? Valve president Gabe Newell explained in an email to those affected, "the problem was that Steam would fail a signature check between the disk version of a DLL and a latent memory version." See, we were just thinking that that had something to do with it.
Newell begged pardon for the erroneous bans, adding "this was our mistake, and I apologize for any frustration or angst it may have caused you." An apology and a swift reversal of the ban aren't all that these users will receive -- Newell promised a giftable copy of Left 4 Dead 2 to all those affected, as well as one copy for themselves, provided they don't already have it.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
Newell begged pardon for the erroneous bans, adding "this was our mistake, and I apologize for any frustration or angst it may have caused you." An apology and a swift reversal of the ban aren't all that these users will receive -- Newell promised a giftable copy of Left 4 Dead 2 to all those affected, as well as one copy for themselves, provided they don't already have it.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
Reader Comments (57)
Posted: Jul 27th 2010 8:30PM S0lid Sn4ke said
MystileArmor said it greatly once before
BROCCOLI < THE MARIO
Reply
BROCCOLI < THE MARIO
Posted: Jul 27th 2010 1:49PM markhill66 said
That's awesome for Gabe to not only own up to a mistake, but to give out a pretty awesome reimbursement.
Reply
Posted: Jul 27th 2010 2:21PM Special Agent Steve said
@(Unverified)
I hate when people make fun of Gabe, he's my favorite developer/managing director D:>.
Valve games have ALWAYS been good.
Reply
I hate when people make fun of Gabe, he's my favorite developer/managing director D:>.
Valve games have ALWAYS been good.
Posted: Jul 27th 2010 9:18PM PhilipJWitow said
@markhill66.
Wow, Sony, Microsoft and many other companies could learn a thing or two from this. Hell, I wish I was affected just so I could get a free copy of L4D2. :P
Reply
Wow, Sony, Microsoft and many other companies could learn a thing or two from this. Hell, I wish I was affected just so I could get a free copy of L4D2. :P
Posted: Jul 28th 2010 9:05PM S0lid Sn4ke said
Just get it. It's worth the money (unless you live in Australia.
Reply
Posted: Jul 27th 2010 1:52PM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said
Valve never ceases to impress me.
They just always do things right. That's rare for a company these days.
Reply
They just always do things right. That's rare for a company these days.
Posted: Jul 27th 2010 2:05PM worldpattern said
@Ezio Auditore da Firenze
Well, except for when they released The Orange Box on consoles and didn't support them after launch. That kinda sucked. But otherwise...
Reply
Well, except for when they released The Orange Box on consoles and didn't support them after launch. That kinda sucked. But otherwise...
Posted: Jul 27th 2010 2:30PM MowDownJoe said
@worldpattern Valve released the Orange Box on the 360 and tried to support it, but Microsoft wanting to charge for updates to TF2 forced them to back off. EA was the one who released the PS3 version and didn't support it.
Reply
Posted: Jul 27th 2010 1:58PM markhill66 said
@Petebot330 Haha...they may just be more brilliant than we think. Hmm....
Reply
Posted: Jul 27th 2010 2:02PM clarinetJWD said
@Petebot330 Well, sure, they are fully aware that giving out free games as an apology is going to get them a lot of good press and word of mouth, yet they're still the only company doing things like this.
Reply
Posted: Jul 27th 2010 2:08PM worldpattern said
@Iron Man
They are both good, but if you can choose only 1 of them go with the Resurgence Pack. Carnival, Trailer Park, Fuel, Strike and Vacant. There is a well-known glitch on Fuel currently, though it's getting patched (hopefully) soon.
Reply
They are both good, but if you can choose only 1 of them go with the Resurgence Pack. Carnival, Trailer Park, Fuel, Strike and Vacant. There is a well-known glitch on Fuel currently, though it's getting patched (hopefully) soon.
Posted: Jul 27th 2010 1:58PM Fuzzy OneThree said
Anyone want to send one of those copies of L4D2 my way?
Reply
Posted: Jul 27th 2010 2:01PM ch3burashka said
This must be their new initiative: first they become massively successful via their awesome deals, and now they ban other games' players and apologize with their own brand of crack, and some crack to share with your friends! They're planning to take over the entire free world!
/conspiracy
Reply
/conspiracy
Posted: Jul 27th 2010 2:04PM mykelsss said
Deal with it.
-Gabe
http://tecnoculto.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/esto_es_amor_de_verdad_03_thumb.jpg
Reply
-Gabe
http://tecnoculto.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/esto_es_amor_de_verdad_03_thumb.jpg
Posted: Jul 27th 2010 2:05PM SecrtAgentMan said
+1 Internetz for Gabe
-9002 Internetz for not giving us HL2:E3 or HL3 yet
Reply
-9002 Internetz for not giving us HL2:E3 or HL3 yet
Posted: Jul 27th 2010 2:09PM worldpattern said
If only Microsoft would unaccidentally ban the 100,000+ cheaters/hackers/modders on the 360 version. Sigh.
Reply
Posted: Jul 27th 2010 2:48PM sigma8 said
@Mofetti
Not even comparable situations. The only people I have heard about having problems with iphone4's are blog journalists looking for some hits and Whoopi Goldberg. Yet Apple gives away free cases just to palliate everyone. Whether or not they even made a mistake is debatable. Wrongly banning people is not debatable.
Reply
Not even comparable situations. The only people I have heard about having problems with iphone4's are blog journalists looking for some hits and Whoopi Goldberg. Yet Apple gives away free cases just to palliate everyone. Whether or not they even made a mistake is debatable. Wrongly banning people is not debatable.
Posted: Jul 27th 2010 4:58PM likedamaster said
@Van Redd
You're friggin shameless!
(Steam: Caballote)
Reply
You're friggin shameless!
(Steam: Caballote)
Posted: Jul 27th 2010 2:54PM Anticrawl said
No self-respecting PC gamer would support that atrocity. Hell if we did support it more developers might think they can get away with that shit.
Valve knows gamers come first, that's why Steam is so awesome. It's a shame we have to be associated with that filth.
Reply
Valve knows gamers come first, that's why Steam is so awesome. It's a shame we have to be associated with that filth.
Posted: Jul 28th 2010 7:36AM Wongfeihong said
@Anticrawl I don't need PC fanboys like you to tell me what games I can and cannot enjoy. Forget Activision - it's PC elitists like you that are ruining PC gaming.
Reply
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