Valve's Steam Network Is Down [UPDATE]

Update: Steam appears to be back online as of 11 AM PT. We'll continue to monitor the situation in case any other issues arise.

Original Story: Valve's steam service is currently down, with the store, friends lists, and game servers unavailable. The downtime coincides with the start of the annual Winter sale, during which a range of games are heavily discounted.

Naturally, interest in discounts results in considerable network activity on Steam. Following the launch of the sale on December 22 the store was running a bit slow, so it is thought that the traffic could also be the cause of Steam going completely offline.

However, popular gaming network services such as Steam, Xbox Live, and PlayStation Network have previously been the target of DDoS attacks during the Holiday period. Valve has not officially addressed the cause of the issues or said when the service will return.

Along with the sales, Valve has also officially kicked off The Steam Awards. Nominations for this began last month, and now users can vote for a winner in a different category each day. Voting earns you trading cards. The winners of The Steam Awards will be announced on December 31.