Steam Holiday Auction event exploited and withdrawn

Steam's Holiday event this year, which was an auction where players bid to win free games, was instantly taken offline today as an exploit was discovered within its "gem" currency. The event, which has become an annual endeavor for Valve's store, was to have players accrue "gems" through various different means, which they would then use to bid on a pot of free games. Unfortunately for Valve, an exploit was almost instantaneously discovered after the event went live last night, with players creating vast quantities of the currency in a very short amount of time. In response, Valve took the event offline to fix the problem. A statement on Steam's website reads: "Sorry, but there have been some issues with Gems and the Steam Holiday Auction has been temporarily closed. The elves are working frantically to get the issues sorted out, and the auction will start again as soon as they are done." This isn't the first time that a Steam event has been sabotaged. This year's summer event, which placed users in teams that competed against each other for rewards, was manipulated by concerted efforts of users on forums like Reddit, so that each team won on a regular timetable, much to Valve's chagrin.