A recent glitch caused 12,000 Modern Warfare 2 players on Steam to be banned for no apparent reason. Valve has owned up to the error and, as a way of making amends, is giving those who were banned a free copy of Left 4 Dead 2.

"The problem was that Steam would fail a signature check between the disk version of a DLL and a latent memory version," Valve President Gabe Newell wrote in a personal email to those affected. "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."

While accidentally banning thousands of players from one of the most popular online shooters is a good way to anger players, at least Valve was able to own up to the error and offer up some sort of compensation. Despite its tumultuous launch on the PC, MW2 and its Resurgence expansion are still two of the top selling games on Steam.