Steam's payment system crashed an hour before the Halloween sale ended

Gabe Newell giving discounts while upside-down.

(Image credit: Valve)

Update (11:30 am PT): The problem seems to be resolved now, as we've successfully made a purchase. We'll keep an eye on it.

Original story: Steam's payment system appears to have crashed, with less than an hour to go before the Halloween sale ends. The problems were first reported on Reddit, after which I went to Steam and tried to buy a 59p platformer. The transaction hung for a while, before returning the line: "There seems to have been an error initializing or updating your transaction. Please wait a minute and try again or contact support for assistance. "

Steam payment system down from r/Steam

Obviously not great timing. We've contacted Valve for comment, and will update as we learn more. Guess even virtual bank accounts just get too full sometimes.

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."