Valve explains Orange box deactivations

Consumers based in the US who bought Orange Box product keys from an online retailer in Thailand are having their copies of the game deactivated.

Orange Box developer and Steam operator Valve issued a statement late last week defending its behaviour. "Valve uses Steam for territory control to make sure products authorised for use in certain territories are not being distributed and used outside of those territories," the company said.

"In this case, a Thai website was selling retail box product keys for Thailand to people outside of Thailand. Since those keys are only for use in Thailand, people who purchased product keys from the Thai website are not able to use those product keys in other territories."

Consumers who have since bought a new domestic copy of the game but could still not get the new Orange Box to work, have been told to contact Steam directly.

"Some of these users have subsequently purchased a legal copy after realising the issue and were having difficulty removing the illegitimate keys from their Steam accounts," the statement continues. "Anyone having this problem should contact Steam Support to have the Thai key removed from their Steam account."