Valve responds to lawsuit from New York against loot boxes

The creator of Steam, Valve, may be facing a $900 million lawsuit in the UK as it’s accused of “rigging” the PC gaming market, but that’s not the only legal trouble the publisher is dealing with right now. Recently, New York Attorney General Letitia James also began the process of suing Valve “for illegally promoting gambling through video games popular with teenagers.” Hagens Berman initiated a similar lawsuit just two days ago.

The case against Valve argues that loot boxes — in-game containers players can pay money to open in hopes for a valuable cosmetic item, such as skins for in-game weapons — in its games (Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, Team Fortress 2) “enable gambling by enticing users to pay for the chance to win a rare virtual item of significant monetary value.”

Now, Valve has publicly responded, posting a letter to its New York community on Steam on Wednesday afternoon and addressing the situation by explaining why it feels its loot boxes don’t violate New York gambling laws. “We don’t believe that they do, and were disappointed to see the NYAG make that claim after working to educate them about our virtual items and mystery boxes since they first reached out to us in early 2023. We rarely talk about litigation, but we felt we should explain the situation to you,” it wrote.

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The crux of Valve’s argument against these lawsuits is that in-game loot boxes are ultimately no different than products like baseball card packs or blind boxes — things that also give people a chance of finding a high-value collectible, and then trading or selling it to others for profit. Valve also points out that loot boxes exist elsewhere in gaming, and in its case, have no impact on gameplay and don’t give players an advantage.

Counter-Strike 2

There’s certainly potential profit to be made in Counter-Strike 2 by opening skin cases and selling their contents, but Valve offers there’s nothing illegal about it if things like baseball cards are all well and good. (Image credit: Valve)

Valve then communicated its issues with the alterations the NYAG believes have to be made to its business. Firstly, it took a firm stance against pressure to make loot box contents untradable and non-transferrable, arguing that it’s good that players can sell their items on Steam’s Community Market for money in the same way you can resell a baseball or Pokémon card.

“Transferability is a right we believe should not be taken away, and we refuse to do that,” it said.

It then argued against the NYAG proposing the gathering of additional user information “on the off-chance someone in New York was anonymizing their location to appear outside of New York, such as by using a VPN,” noting that “This would have involved implementing invasive technologies for every user worldwide.” The publisher “knows our users care about the security of their personal information,” and honestly, after all the recent controversy with Discord, who doesn’t?

Valve also spoke against insinuations by the NYAG that there’s a connection between video games and real-world violence. “Those extraneous comments are a distraction and a mischaracterization we’ve all heard before. Numerous studies throughout the years have concluded there is no link between media (movies, TV, books, comics, music, and games) and real world violence,” it wrote.

It ended its letter by stating that it would comply with any laws passed about loot boxes, and notes that while it “may have been easier and cheaper” for Valve to make a deal with the NYAG, it believes that deal would have ended up being bad for its community.

“Ultimately, a court will decide whose position — ours or NYAG’s — is correct. In the meantime, we wanted to make sure you were aware of the potential impact to users in New York and elsewhere,” Valve concluded.

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