Valve has firmly rejected recent reports suggesting that its Steam platform experienced a "major" data hack, asserting that there was "NOT a breach" of Steam systems.

Despite concerns from some users about reports claiming over 89 million user records were compromised, Steam's thorough investigation revealed that the incident involved a leak of "older text messages." Importantly, these one-time code SMSs did not contain any personal data.

In a statement on Steam, Valve clarified that after analyzing the leak sample, it concluded that no customer data was compromised. They stated: "The leak consisted of older text messages that included one-time codes that were only valid for 15-minute time frames and the phone numbers they were sent to. The leaked data did not associate the phone numbers with a Steam account, password information, payment information or other personal data."

Valve further reassured users that "Old text messages cannot be used to breach the security of your Steam account, and whenever a code is used to change your Steam email or password using SMS, you will receive a confirmation via email and/or Steam secure messages."

The recent scare comes at a time when data breaches are increasingly common, and with over 89 million Steam accounts, users had legitimate concerns about potential security threats. The most infamous video game-related data breach occurred in 2011 when PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable networks were severely compromised, resulting in a nearly month-long outage and affecting 77 million accounts.

Moreover, it's not just customer data at stake. Just last October, Pokémon developer Game Freak suffered a significant hack where data about its former and current staff, as well as its development pipeline, was leaked. A year earlier in 2023, Sony confirmed that data of nearly 7,000 of its current and former employees was compromised in two separate breaches. In December 2023, hackers breached confidential data at Marvel's Spider-Man developer, Insomniac, highlighting the ongoing risks in the gaming industry.