Anti-Piracy Success For Steam News

Just over a week since it released Half-Life 2 to overjoyed fans, Valve have confirmed that 20â??000 Steam accounts have been indefinitely suspended in an anti-piracy crackdown.

In a statement, sources within the company said that, "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 2â?¦Valve did not put out any kind of fake key or fake wares or hack instructions to trap people. The hack came from the 'community' as do they all."

The statement also commented that, "Accounts also may be closed due to fraudulent activity in an attempt to obtain additional products for your Steam Accountâ?¦This includes Credit Card fraud, theft of accounts you do not own and using cracked versions of Valve games."

Gamers had reported delays in authenticating their copies of HL2 over the Steam system, but since the title has been universally applauded for developing the FPS genre, it shouldnâ??t concern Valve too much â?“ especially when a large amount of piracy appears to have been thwarted.

Weâ??ll have more soonâ?¦