Whoopsie! Mass banning in MW2 via Valve’s VAC, free Left 4 Dead 2 for apologies

July 27, 2010

A mass banning had apparently transpired over the past weekend via Valve’s anti-cheat software (VAC) in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Thing is, those banned were not cheaters. Valve, of course, has already been made aware of this mistake, and is now offering peace to those aggrieved with free copies of Left 4 Dead 2.

Oh, and they will, of course, be restoring the Steam accounts of those wrongfully condemnd to MW2 bannination. Gabe Newell, President of Valve, even sent out this letter to those who fell victim to the arbitrary act of the VAC:

Hello,

Recently, your Steam account was erroneously banned from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

This was our mistake, and I apologize for any frustration or angst it may have caused you.

The problem was that Steam would fail a signature check between the disk version of a DLL and a latent memory version. This was caused by a combination of conditions occurring while Steam was updating the disk image of a game. This wasn’t a game-specific mistake. Steam allows us to manage and reverse these erroneous bans (about 12,000 erroneous bans over two weeks).

We have reversed the ban, restoring your access to the game. In addition, we have given you a free copy of Left 4 Dead 2 to give as a gift on Steam, plus a free copy for yourself if you didn’t already own the game.

To share your extra copy of Left 4 Dead 2 with a friend, you can ‘Manage Gifts and Guest Passes’ from the ‘Games’ Menu in Steam, or visit this article on the Steam Support site for detailed instructions: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4502-TPJL-2656.

To access your own copy of Left 4 Dead 2, visit your library of games in Steam. If you didn’t already own the game, it will now be listed among your others there, and is available for download immediately.

Regards,
Gabe Newell
President, Valve

Have you got your apology package from Valve yet?

Via [Kotaku]

Related Articles: