Valve pushes back on New York lawsuit over loot boxes in CS2, Dota 2, and Team Fortress 2

Valve has formally responded to New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit accusing the company of promoting illegal gambling through loot boxes in Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, and Team Fortress 2. Valve says it doesn’t believe its “mystery boxes” break New York gambling laws or unlawfully encourage minors to gamble, and claims it’s been in contact with the AG’s office about the issue since early 2023.

The lawsuit was filed on February 26 after an investigation by the Office of the Attorney General. According to the AG’s announcement, New York alleges Valve has made “billions of dollars” by luring users, including teenagers, into gambling through these systems.

In a message aimed at New York players, Valve argued that opening paid random packs is common in both physical collectibles and games, and emphasized that the items from its boxes are cosmetic and optional. Valve also said it’s spent years trying to limit third-party gambling, fraud, and theft tied to Steam accounts and in-game item trading. The company claims it has locked over one million Steam accounts connected to misuse, and pointed to features like trade reversal and trade cooldowns as part of that effort.

Valve also laid out the kinds of changes it says the New York AG’s office wanted. One major sticking point: transferability. Valve says the AG’s office pushed for boxes and their contents to be non-transferable, which would impact Steam Trading and the Community Market. Valve says it won’t remove users’ ability to trade or sell items.

Valve also objected to proposed steps around location checks and age verification, saying the requests would require collecting more personal data and could mean “invasive technologies” for users worldwide. Valve says it’ll comply if New York passes new laws governing mystery boxes, but for now the dispute is headed for court.