The Steam outage appeared to begin mid-afternoon ET, according to Downdetector, which monitors site outages. (Disclosure: Downdetector is owned by the same parent company as CNET, Ziff Davis.) A representative for Steam did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Christmas video games are a special kind of magic. Without us knowing, they deliver lasting holiday memories after the festive season. Long before modern consoles and live-service events, retro Christmas games delivered pure fun,

Steam is almost always working properly, but there are rare occasions when it has some hiccups. Steam's latest issues cropped up on Christmas Eve, with the platform going down for a brief period of time before coming back up,

GameStop stock has been popular with retail investors in recent years. Here's a look at how the stock performed versus a video game purchase last Christmas.