Valve responds to NY Attorney General lawsuit: "We have serious concerns with the alterations the NYAG claims are necessary to make to our games"

Valve has publicly responded to the New York Attorney General's lawsuit alleging its loot boxes in Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, and Team Fortress 2 constitute illegal gambling. Valve argues mystery boxes are analogous to physical collectibles like baseball cards and Pokémon packs, that item transferability benefits consumers, and that the NYAG's proposed remedies—restricting item trading, implementing invasive user tracking, and collecting additional personal data—go far beyond existing New York law and would harm users globally. Valve states it has already locked over one million Steam accounts tied to gambling misuse and implemented trade cooldowns to combat third-party gambling sites. The company says it refused to settle because the deal would have been bad for users and other developers, and will let a court decide the matter. Separately, the Performing Right Society has also filed legal proceedings against Valve over unlicensed use of music on Steam.