To make up for mistakenly banning 12,000 Steam gamers from playing Modern Warfare 2 online, Valve served up a peace offering of up to two free Left 4 Dead 2 downloads.

Ars Technica relays the apologetic email from Valve honcho Gabe Newell:

“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.

“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.”

Since Left 4 Dead 2 focuses almost entirely on cooperative multiplayer, the gift copy will make the game that much more enjoyable to the recipients. Kudos to Valve for more than making up for its gaffe.

Valve responds to MW2 Steam glitch with free copies of L4D2 [Ars Technica]
(Thanks, Jason!)

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