Valve responds to NYC lawsuit

Valve has officially responded to the lawsuit filed by New York's Attorney General Letitia James for "illegally promoting gambling through video games popular with children and teenagers" in February 2026. The lawsuit claimed that the Attorney General was concerned about the harm loot boxes in Counter-Strike 2 caused to children and also attempted to connect America's rampant gun violence problem with Counter-Strike.

In response to the lawsuit, Valve has put out a statement for all customers of Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2 and Team Fortress 2 in New York. Valve expressed their disappointed in the turn of events and claimed that the Attorney General's office has been in contact with Valve since early 2023 regarding the same, but failed to understand Valve's explanation regarding in-game virtual items.

Valve compared in-game mystery boxes with several real world concepts like baseball cards, Pokemon cards and other collectibles. Valve further crushed the credibility of the lawsuit by pointing out that users are not required to open mystery boxes and their outcome has no impact on gameplay, meaning which a user who does not spend money will not face a competitive disadvantage.

Players don't have to open mystery boxes to play Valve games. In fact, most of you don't open any boxes at all and just play the games—because the items in the boxes are purely cosmetic, there is no disadvantage to a player not spending money.
Valve

Valve discarded the NYAG's claims of gambling sites operating with Valve's cooperation, mentioning that they stand against the same. Valve further compared in-game items to baseball and Pokemon cards when talking about NYAG's demands to disable peer-to-peer trading and the community market.

This would have involved implementing invasive technologies for every user worldwide. Valve knows our users care about the security of their personal information, and we believe it’s in our and their interest to only collect the information necessary to operate the business and comply with law.
Valve on NYAG's demand for invasive age-verification

Valve concluded the statement by confirming their stance towards providing an optimal experience for gamers stating that while it would've been easier and cheaper for Valve to come to an understanding with the NYAG and implement demanded changes, it would not be in the best interests of consumers and other gamer developers in some cases. "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.", said Valve, concluding their statement.