Valve Cans 20,000 Steam Accounts

KingFishKingFish
edited November 2004 in Science & Tech
Well it looks like Valve has started to 'drop the hammer' or whatever you want to call it on people being naughty instead of nice when trying to get Half-Life 2 without paying for it.
Here's the official word from Valve:

Yesterday, Valve disabled approximately 20,000 Steam accounts which had been used to try to access Half-Life 2 without purchasing it. The method used was extremely easy for Valve to trace and confirm, and so there is no question that the accounts disabled were used to try and illegally obtain Half-Life 2. Accounts also may be closed due to fraudulent activity in an attempt to obtain additional products for your Steam Account. This includes Credit Card fraud, theft of accounts you do not own and using cracked versions of Valve games. If you violate the Steam Subscriber agreement your account can be permanently disabled and you will lose any products registered to those accounts.

Also, a few myths floating around out there that need to be cleared up.

First, Valve did not put out any kind of fake key or fake warez or hack instructions to trap people. The hack came from the "community" as do they all. Second, the number of people who actually had bought HL2 and used the CD key cheat was VERY small. VERY small. Most people just tried to rip off the game and not bother buying it.
Source: ShackNews

Comments

  • -Ben-Ben
    edited November 2004
    Half-Life 2 deserves your money :D
  • GrayFox
    edited November 2004
    Im glad there doing something
    Those pirates are running now :D

    ALWAYS PAY FOR UR SOFTWARE IF YOU ENJOY IT
  • rugbug
    edited November 2004
    the cracked version is out there and going strong. last i looked, tens of thousands of people were downloading it. too bad that legitimate buyers like me had to suffer through the ridiculous online verification system, when all it did in the end was cause pirates to take just a little longer to crack the game. i know they have to do -something-, but from here on out, i no longer buy games requiring online activation.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited November 2004
    you say that now, but in two years, when every single game out there requires online activation, you might be singing a different tune
  • TheBaronTheBaron Austin, TX
    edited November 2004
    the fact that I wouldn't have been able to get the game to install without ripping images using Alcohol and then I had to uninstall Alcohol to play the game kind of bothers me. their cds aren't compliant with old technology or something, the CDRoms I was using seem to get totally confused by SecureROM
  • floppybootstompfloppybootstomp Greenwich New
    edited November 2004
    I must be an oddity, am I the only one who's gone to the shop, bought the game on DVD, installed it, and then played without any problems?

    I say good luck to Valve, they're a business, therefore they exist to make money, nothing wrong with that. Thirty or thirty five UK pounds is a fair price to pay for so much enjoyment.

    It cost them a lot of time and money to make HL2 and hopefully if they make bundles of cash on sales some will go towards making more games of the same quality.

    I almost always buy games, I don't mind supporting them. Microsoft products, however, are a different matter, schtumm :range:
Sign In or Register to comment.