Valve responds to New York attorney general lawsuit.
Recently, New York state sued Valve, claiming that its game’s loot box system is a form of gambling. New York Attorney General Letitia James alleged that loot boxes in Steam games, such as Counter-Strike 2 and DOTA 2, facilitated a gambling system and warned that it could lead to serious gambling problems, especially for young people.
Now, Valve has responded to the allegations with a lengthy statement posted on the official Steam website.
Valve Was First Contacted by the New York Attorney General in 2023
Valve has revealed that it was first contacted by the NYAG in 2023 and “worked to educate them” about the nature of its virtual items and mystery boxes. They claim to have explained that these types of items are not just used in video games but also in the trading card world. Furthermore, they say they cooperated with the investigation and shared their efforts to shut down accounts that would use game items on gambling sites.
Valve then went on to name some of the issues they have with the claims by New York Attorney General Letitia James. Namely, Valve calls out that the state of New York believes the contents of loot boxes should not be transferable.
“We have serious concerns with many of the alterations the NYAG claims are necessary to make to our games. First, the NYAG seems to believe boxes and their contents should not be transferable,” the statement reads. “They appear to assume digital mystery boxes and items in our games are different from tangible items like baseball card packs (which contain random cards), and to take issue with the fact that users have the ability to transfer the items they receive through Steam Trading or user-to-user sales on the Community Market. We think the transferability of a digital game item is good for consumers—it gives a user the ability to sell or trade an old or unwanted item for something else, in the same way an owner can sell or trade a tangible item like a Pokémon or baseball card. NYAG proposes to take away users’ ability to transfer their digital items from Valve games. Transferability is a right we believe should not be taken away, and we refuse to do that.”
Valve Also Addresses Lawsuit Concerns About Real-World Violence
Valve would go on to say that they respect New York’s rights to determine the laws governing its state and that they will comply with any legislation that passes regarding mystery boxes. However, the New York Attorney General’s complaint also notes concern about the violent nature of Valve’s video games.
In response, Valve says those comments were a distraction and a mischaracterization, similar to what many have heard about gaming in the past.
“In addition, although this case is about mystery boxes, we feel the need to address comments made by the NYAG about games, real world violence, and children. 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. Indeed, many studies highlight the beneficial impact of games to users.”
In addition to this lawsuit, a class action lawsuit is being brought against Valve. Learn more about that at this link.
How do you feel about Valve’s response? Sound off in our official Discord server. Also, don’t forget to sign up for our weekly newsletter.
