Thank you, this worked for me (European Steam user)
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Still can’t get in. Am not EU
Steam user, NA server. Got the authentication hang-up. Canceling and retrying worked, but it took several tries.
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I had the same issues trying to log in as a US (Los Angeles) Steam user.
Did the cache clearing tip, but it seemed like it was still taking a long time to Authenticate my log in.
Tried the “Cancel Authenticating after a few seconds until it finally goes through” trick and that has now worked twice for me.
Best of luck, all!
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That worked for me too. I am US steam user Pacific time.
same message same results. no other program having any issues with my firewall. I just cant play SWL.
Seems to indicate ongoing issues with Steam in some regions, particularly EU.
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Any update on fix in US region?
I finally got my game to run with a combination of what has been suggested. (Cleared out Steam’s download cache & cancelled authorization when it took too long.)
The first time I got it to run, I did use the launcher exe within the Steam folder rather then using it through the Steam client. Steam did give me a pop-up asking if that was what I wanted. It did take a couple of attempts at authorizing, but it did run. 
In eastern US, still can’t login. Checked firewall status and rebooted, no avail.
Please refer to the map linked above (http://downdetector.com/status/steam/map/) for an idea of where Steam auth may be down. Unfortunately, there is nothing we are able to do on our end. 
I’m still having the same issue. SWL twitter said they “largely resolved” the issue but i’m STILL having trouble logging in. This is ridiculous. When are they gonna provide a real fix instead of just saying they have?
This is a Steam Authentication Server issue; they’ve been dealing with outages worldwide: http://downdetector.com/status/steam/map
Solidarity, @sylleth, my client has been affected by this too.
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Still happening as of Monday May 21st, 8am EST. 
Is there a temp fix I can implement?
The user-identified workarounds that have worked for me at different times:
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Open Steam, go Steam menu > Settings > Downloads > click ‘Clear Download Cache’ button (note: you will have to log in with your password again so make sure you remember it or have access to email to reset it!)
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Launch SWL as usual, press —PLAY NOW— button. Now when “Authenticating…” pops up, if it takes more than a few seconds click cancel, and press the PLAY button again, repeat until it brings you to the character screen. I’ve heard reports of it taking between 2 and 20 attempts, mine has been in the 3-8 attempts range.
Best of luck!
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I had luck with the ‘clear download cache’ method on the first try (although, yes, you do have to re-log back into Steam, so I hope you have your info).
I’m in the Pacific Northwest, though, where the problems seem to be minimal.
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In my case it was 5-7 attemps to log in. Authenticating - cancel - Authenticating -cancel. Repeat.
Question on this. Is this an issue perhaps on the location of the SWL servers? I am in Phoenix, AZ and have no issues accessing steam during all of this but repeatedly have issues getting to the character select of SWL. This to me sounds like more than just “Steam auth” being the issue, but perhaps geolocation of the SWL servers themselves. If those are in an area that is having auth issues with Steam that would make a lot more sense. Any one else in areas with zero Steam issues but still have these problems?
The authentication is still an issue. It’s a total crap-shoot whether the game will authenticate or not.
If it was because of the server locale it would effect everyone some of the time. What we have is that it stopped being an issue for some folks, and remains an issue for other folks.