Steam really needs to step up their game here. The issue definitely lies with them. When you get those UE5 timeout errors, it's misleading as hell, making you think it's the game messing up. My experience says it all. Steam had me running in circles, first pointing fingers at the game devs.
But when the devs dug into it, guess what? Everything's fine on their end. The logs? They just showed a canceled or failed transaction. Nothing unusual there. But then the devs get a curveball from Steam, saying the issue's about suspected fraud. And they pass this gem on to me. Classic miscommunication. Nobody from Steam had the decency to reach out to me directly. I've been a regular spender on Steam, buying games left and right without any hiccups. Yet, out of the blue, they decide to single out this one game for me.
Enough was enough. I fired off an escalated ticket to Steam, loaded with all the gory details, after my initial support ticket got closed without any resolution. Nothing gets under my skin more than a half-baked 'solution' and passing the buck. So, 24 hours and a long-winded ticket later, what do I get? A brand new response admitting that, yes, it was Steam messing up all along. The previous responses? All mistakes from their misinformed reps. They lifted the blockade on my account pronto, vowing never to repeat this mistake. (I'll post their reply below for the full picture). Long story short, give Steam a serious nudge. Tell them to pull themselves together and sort out your account.