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The creator of Steamvalve, May face $900 million lawsuit in UK as it is accused of “manipulating” the PC gaming market, but that is not the case. only Legal issue the publisher is currently dealing with. Recently, New York Attorney General Letitia James also began the process of suing Valve. “for illegally promoting gambling through video games popular among teenagers.” Hagens Berman filed a similar lawsuit Just two days ago.
The case against Valve argues that loot boxes (in-game containers that players can pay to open in the hopes of obtaining 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 opportunity to win a rare virtual item of significant monetary value.”
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Valve then communicated its issues with the changes NYAG believes should be made to its business. First, he took a strong stance against the push to make the contents of loot boxes non-transferable and non-transferable, arguing that it’s a good thing that players can sell their items on the Steam Community Market for money in the same way they can resell a baseball or Pokémon card.
“Transferability is a right that we believe should not be taken away and we refuse to do so,” he said.
He then argued against NYAG proposing to collect additional user information “in the event that someone in New York was anonymizing their location to appear outside of New York, such as using a VPN,” noting that “This would have involved implementing invasive technologies for every user around the world.” The publisher “knows that our users care about the security of their personal information” and, honestly, after all the recent controversy with Discordwho doesn’t?
Valve also spoke out against NYAG’s insinuations that there is a connection between video games and real-world violence. “Those strange comments are a distraction and mischaracterization that we’ve all heard before. Numerous studies over the years have concluded that there is no link between media (movies, television, books, comics, music and games) and real-world violence,” he wrote.
He ended his letter by stating that he would comply with any laws passed regarding loot boxes, noting that while it “may have been easier and cheaper” for Valve to reach an agreement with NYAG, he believes that such an agreement would have ended up being bad for his community.
“Ultimately, a court will decide which position, ours or NYAG’s, is correct. In the meantime, we wanted to make sure they were aware of the potential impact for users in New York and elsewhere,” Valve concluded.
🗨️ Who do you agree with?
Valve just can’t seem to escape the demands of regulators and government bodies, huh? I’m curious: do you think New York AG is right about this, or do you think Valve is right in saying that loot boxes in games are no different than baseball cards or blind boxes?
Let me know what you think below and be sure to vote in our poll:
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