Apologising to approximately 12,000 disgruntled Modern Warfare 2 gamers erroneously flagged as “rocket whores” or “camping sniper bitches” (or whatever we’re calling cheating bastards these days), Valve have doled out free copies of Left 4 Dead 2 to the affected as a sign of their contriteness.

Gabe Newell, Valve President and recent PS3 convert, has commented on the unfortunate use of an over-zealous ban-hammer by stating:

“This was our mistake, and I apologise 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.”

Gabe went on to then whisper the mantra of “Portal 3 … Portal 3 …” over and over in an attempt to disorientate and bewitch those still pissed at not being able to go online and shoot virtual people while being bombarded with insults from little snots who should know better.

Source: Edge