Valve Gives Left 4 Dead 2 for Christmas; Steam Goes Down

Post by Dan @ 08:48am 26/12/13 | 59 Comments

It's been a while since we've experienced an extended Steam outage, but the popular digital distribution platform appears to be completely offline this morning, presumably due to overwhelming demand for Valve's Christmas day promotion: free Left 4 Dead 2.

Valve has temporarily made Left 4 Dead 2 a free purchase on Steam, however in order to claim it, has instructed players to "install it", prompting a rush on full 7.5GB downloads of the game, when we suspect that merely attaching it to your Steam account for download at a more convenient time might suffice (though please don't take our word for it).

To celebrate the holidays in a special way this year, Left 4 Dead 2 will be free until 10AM PST 12/26.

It will be free as in, grab it now, pay no money, and it is yours to keep forever – FOR FREE!

To claim your L4D2 gift, all you need to do is install it.

If you don’t install, it goes back to its regular price and you miss out! The zombie apocalypse is more fun with friends so make sure to tell all your mates to install it as well.

To help spread the holiday cheer, all current players can earn the achievement – Ghost of Christmas Present – Spread cheer by helping a free holiday player survive a campaign.

At the time of posting, Steam has been down and ruining Christmas for two and a half hours and counting, not a good look for any DRM implementation. The Left 4 Dead 2 promotion is scheduled to wrap up at 5am December 27th Sydney time, but perhaps Valve will adjust or extend the offer on account of the outage.

Update: Steam is now back up, but still appears to be experiencing intermittent timeouts.

left 4 dead 2 free valve software steam

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Latest Comments

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Mosfx
Posted 09:09am 26/12/13

Yeah still down now, can't check today's specials :(

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AloneOz
Posted 09:30am 26/12/13

Guess they wanted that L4D2.

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d^
Posted 09:44am 26/12/13

Yep still down, shame but excellent move giving it for free.

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Topper
Posted 02:37pm 26/12/13

Us poor Aussies are stuck with the gimped version as well

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Mosfx
Posted 09:49am 26/12/13

I honestly thought everyone had L4D2, I guess not lol

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mental
Posted 10:12am 26/12/13

left 4 dead has split screen support with two xbox controllers like portal2?

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Nerf Stormborn
Posted 10:20am 26/12/13

Yeah still down now, can't check today's specials :(

There's a list here.

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Mosfx
Posted 12:46pm 26/12/13

Anyone want Rise of the Triad, I picked up a 4 pack for $9.00 I got two copies left to give away, has to be a regular here and first come first serve.

*Edit

All gone

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shadowstealer7
Posted 11:10am 26/12/13

Left 4 Uncut of Left 4 Gore makes our version into the US version

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mental
Posted 11:21am 26/12/13

Yes it does have split screen.

Must mean left for dead 3 is coming shortly.
Which is source 2.
Hl3.
dreaming.

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fpot
Posted 11:24am 26/12/13

Gabe must be spewing.

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dais
Posted 11:55am 26/12/13

It's back up.

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fpot
Posted 12:05pm 26/12/13

Still down for me.

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d^
Posted 12:07pm 26/12/13

Mosfx I'll take it, in return you can have either Call of Juarez BIB or Frozen Synapse.

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ravn0s
Posted 12:07pm 26/12/13

down here

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ipggi
Posted 12:33pm 26/12/13

I think it was a pretty dumb promotion and to do it over Xmas when Steam is probably operating with a skeleton staff?

It's not like L4D2 is all that special, they have sold it previously for only $5 with some 75% off sales.

Yet because of this freebe, for the remainder of Christmas I will not be able to log into my Steam account until this fiasco is done with.

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carson
Posted 12:43pm 26/12/13

If you got another copy, I'll take it Mosfx

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ph33x
Posted 12:48pm 26/12/13

Anyone want Rise of the Triad, I picked up a 4 pack for $9.00 I got two copies left to give away, has to be a regular here and first come first serve.

Yes sir. I'll keep you in mind for future packs I buy.

(Steam is up for me and has been for about the last 90 minutes. Sure the outage isn't caused by a poor route? I'm on Node)

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Dan
Posted 01:39pm 26/12/13

Just a PSA from anyone that has yet to pick this one up:

I've verified that it's possible for an Australian to obtain the low violence (not censored) version if you visit the store via an international URL, eg: http://store.steampowered.com/app/550/?cc=uk (so appending ?cc=uk or ?cc=us etc to the end of the store link) and clicking install from there while logged into your Steam account in your webrowser of choice.

Ordinarily there would also be another geolocation check that Steam performs on your payment source (credit card billing address etc), but as L4D2 is currently free, you don't have to worry about that at the moment. There doesn't seem to be any GeoIP checks used in deciding whether you get delivered the censored or uncensored version.

If you already have the Australian/German low violence version of L4D2 linked to your steam account, then you unfortunately can't just overwrite it with the uncensored free one (I can't personally verify this, but I suspect it might be possible to contact Steam support and have the L4D2 license expunged from your account, then perform the above method to nab the liberated version while it's still free).

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ph33x
Posted 01:00pm 26/12/13

Will it stay on your list if you install it, uninstall it, then install at a later date? I got a format coming up soon.

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Mantorok
Posted 01:04pm 26/12/13

Yes

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Dan
Posted 01:07pm 26/12/13

ph33x: It definitely would, yes. As I mentioned in the OP, I suspect that completely installing it is not actually a requirement as the announcement seemed to suggest. I could be wrong, but simply having the L4D2 license attached to your Steam account should be all you need to have, as I've never heard of licenses being revoked for anything other than fraudulent activity.

It might make sense that Valve would want to dissuade people just registering lots of fresh Steam accounts to associate L4D2 to and use for cheats or onselling etc, but surely they'd be able to detect that independently.

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Timmeh
Posted 01:06pm 26/12/13

Will it stay on your list if you install it, uninstall it, then install at a later date? I got a format coming up soon.

Yea mate. Its to the account. Once the gift is accepted its tied to that account.
You can format and change pcs 1000000 times it still be there.

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ph33x
Posted 01:25pm 26/12/13

ph33x: It definitely would, yes. As I mentioned in the OP, I suspect that completely installing it is not actually a requirement as the announcement seemed to suggest.

Confirmed. Make sure you are logged into Steam Website - Go to http://store.steampowered.com/app/550/?cc=us - Click Install Game. Don't have to download the game but it's now on my Steam list. Churs fo dat. :)

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AussieLFD2
Posted 01:59pm 26/12/13

how are you confirming that you go the uncensored version? I thought you had to actually play the game to test that.

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Topper
Posted 02:31pm 26/12/13

Just a PSA from anyone that has yet to pick this one up:

I've verified that it's possible for an Australian to obtain the low violence (not censored) version if you visit the store via an international URL, eg: http://store.steampowered.com/app/550/?cc=uk (so appending ?cc=uk or ?cc=us etc to the end of the store link) and clicking install from there while logged into your Steam account in your webrowser of choice

Just be careful of doing this though, as doing this is a violation of the SSA and they could ban your account and all your games along with it. I know in this case you are not purchasing anything per se; but you are actively circumventing the steam store regional restrictions (which is outlined as prohibited in the agreement)

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infi
Posted 02:35pm 26/12/13

So its a big f*** you to anyone who already owns L4D2.

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Topper
Posted 02:43pm 26/12/13

So its a big f*** you to anyone who already owns L4D2.

The game is over 4 years old. Its been sold for under $10 in almost every Steam sale. You have to look at it from the perspective of how much its worth now, not how much it was when you purchased it.

Games depreciate in value just as quickly as other things in life. Valve decides to do something nice for those who don't own it yet. Deal with it

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AussieLFD2
Posted 02:59pm 26/12/13

can anyone who as done this and downloaded the game confirm that the method works?

How do you know if you've successfully unlocked the full-violence version?
Watch this. See how the uncut version has bits and pieces flying everywhere? You need to recreate this event in-game. The easiest and fastest way would be to do the following:

Right click Left 4 Dead 2 on the Steam Client and select Properties
Click "Set Launch Options" on the bottom left side of the screen and type in "-console". Press enter.
Click Play Game. Press ~, it's the top left key on your keyboard and type in the following prompts, in order

sv_cheats 1
map c1m1_hotel (allow the game to load)
god 1
give pipe_bomb

Once done, scroll down to the pipe bomb, walk downstairs and throw the bomb. Wait and see if you've successfully unlocked the uncut version of the game.

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 03:04pm 26/12/13

So its a big f*** you to anyone who already owns L4D2.

F*****g hell Infi, God forbid anyone gets something for free that someone else owns.

That reveals a pretty interesting state of your mind, if you think those thoughts for something that is a gift to everyone. P.S. It isn't healthy.

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infi
Posted 03:30pm 26/12/13

it's a gift to everyone who doesn't own L4D2. i.e. none of their committed customer base.

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Enska
Posted 03:39pm 26/12/13

f*** off back to a politics thread infi you massive grinch.

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fpot
Posted 03:40pm 26/12/13

Yeah we know that's what you meant and thinking that way makes you a total douche.

No one else is allowed to have the game for free because I paid for it wah wah wah :(

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infi
Posted 03:42pm 26/12/13

I don't have a problem with them giving it away, I just have a problem with them calling it a gift for EVERYONE when it is clearly not.

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fpot
Posted 03:48pm 26/12/13

I'm trying to find the bit where they call it a gift for everyone but I can't.

Maybe you should just shut up?

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Whoop
Posted 03:52pm 26/12/13

I reckon ausgamers should make their first user registration free, then after that if you get banned you should have to pay to come back, or if your name is infi you should have to pay either way

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fpot
Posted 03:55pm 26/12/13

I'd be totally down for that. It does wonders for the quality of the content on somethingawful.

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 04:05pm 26/12/13

It is a gift to me Infi, because I own the game. With a bunch of now new players to play with greatly expanding the ease for me to find games.
Your greed and propensity to get ahead of everyone you possibly can blinds you to the positives of this gift, instead you only see a perceived negative which it really isn't.

It really would suck to be in your state of mind, sadly you wont know any different.

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carson
Posted 05:06pm 26/12/13

It's a gift to the community. People who wouldn't buy it and play it may now do that. So the community gets much better.

I dunno what is up your bum infi. I bought the game, and I think it's awesome they're giving it away. Hardly a bad thing at all.

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sLaps_Forehead
Posted 05:21pm 26/12/13

The LNP is down in the polls, maybe that has something to do with it.

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carson
Posted 06:59pm 26/12/13

It's ABC and the left win media that's reporting that their down. Good ol' Murdoch and his empire are probably telling him that LNP are doing better than the social wanna be Labor ever did.

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DeadlyDav0
Posted 08:32pm 26/12/13

Actually had some dude on steam invite me to a L4D2 game the other day.

Too bad we got the cut version originally (and still is???), it really killed the aus community IMO.

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cherocha
Posted 08:39pm 26/12/13

I don't know any Aus players that actually have the censored version. Pretty sure you can patch it now, anyway.

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fpot
Posted 08:50pm 26/12/13

I got it for free off someone and have the censored version. Around the time I got it I tried hunting down something to uncensor it but couldn't find anything.

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ravn0s
Posted 08:57pm 26/12/13

http://www.left4gore.com/

i've seen some people mentioning that site. not sure if it works.

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HurricaneJim
Posted 09:32pm 26/12/13

I think I'll get it knowing infi is fully red that it's free for everyone.

So yeah, I got it free, without paying anything......sucks to be you infi.

And a totally unrelated meme;

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Mosfx
Posted 09:26am 27/12/13

Yes sir. I'll keep you in mind for future packs I buy.

(Steam is up for me and has been for about the last 90 minutes. Sure the outage isn't caused by a poor route? I'm on Node)

Sorry ph33x two beat you already.

I'm going to try that Left4Gore tonight.

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Keato
Posted 09:27am 27/12/13

Make a new account get a second copy, that's what I did, now I have a spare and uncut :)

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ravn0s
Posted 11:23am 27/12/13

infi?

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Enska
Posted 11:43am 27/12/13

haha, the fact that he only bought it two years ago means the cheap jewish c*** got it on sale anyways.

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sLaps_Forehead
Posted 11:48am 27/12/13

wow racist

to think I got one of my posts nuked because I refered to asians as rice-munchers in a jocular fashion.

last edited by sLaps_Forehead at 11:48:03 27/Dec/13

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Rominion
Posted 11:59am 27/12/13

Sigh, i missed out. What a $@!$@@!$. That's what i get for spending time with the family.. fml

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Tyoson
Posted 05:46pm 27/12/13

Actually had some dude on steam invite me to a L4D2 game the other day.

Too bad we got the cut version originally (and still is???), it really killed the aus community IMO.

Agreed. The lack of gore killed the game for me. Might have to test out that gore mod, looked it up on youtube and it looks good.

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cherocha
Posted 08:25pm 27/12/13

You kents got gypped. I bought it from the UK steam store, and when they declined because my CC was from Aus, I just sent them a message saying "Nah I'm totes from England mate" and they allowed the transaction to go through.

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trillion
Posted 08:27pm 27/12/13

they did the same thing with TF2, why would you bother whining about it

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RuleofBooKz
Posted 09:02pm 27/12/13

because

now is the winter of our discontent?

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trillion
Posted 10:45pm 27/12/13

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HurricaneJim
Posted 12:12am 28/12/13

Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this sun of York; And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.

Now I'll have to stop L4D2 free edition and go watch Richard IIII.......

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ravn0s
Posted 11:40pm 28/12/13

steam's download bandwidth averaged 4 terabits per second during the l4d2 giveaway

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