Valve said it was "disappointed" by the NYAG claims, saying cases are like "Pokemon, Magic the Gathering, and Labubus."
In a rare move, Valve has addressed the ongoing litigation against it filed by the New York Attorney General’s Office. Valve defended and explained its position, stating that it cooperated with the NYAG and is “disappointed” by the claim that it violates New York gambling laws. Here’s a rundown of Valve’s response.
On Feb. 25, 2026, the New York Attorney General, Letitia James, filed a lawsuit against Valve Corporation for “illegally promoting gambling through video games.” The suit particularly singled out the crate mechanics of acquiring cosmetics on three Valve games: Team Fortress 2, Dota 2, and Counter-Strike 2.
A second class-action lawsuit on similar grounds and claims was made in Washington last March 9.
Valve says crates are like “Pokemon, Magic, and Labubus”
Valve opened that it was disappointed by the NYAG’s claim after “working to educate them about our virtual items and mystery boxes.” According to them, the NYAG first reached out in early 2023, and Valve has cooperated with them since.
“We shared with the NYAG that these types of boxes in our games are widely used, not just in video games but in the tangible world as well, where generations have grown up opening baseball card packs and blind boxes and bags, and then trading and selling the items they receive,” said Valve. “On the physical side, popular products used in this way include baseball cards, Pokemon, Magic the Gathering, and Labubu.”
While they didn’t share an exact number, Valve said that most players don’t open boxes at all, and explained that this is likely because the items are cosmetic and do not provide any gameplay advantage.
Valve added that they discussed their ongoing efforts to combat fraud, theft, and their “extraordinary measures to stop gambling sites from taking advantage of Steam accounts and Valve game items.”
Just recently, Valve introduced the “X-Ray Scanner” feature in Counter-Strike 2, allowing players in Germany to reveal items inside cases.
“We do not cooperate with gambling sites,” Valve stressed. “We’ve also shipped features (like trade reversal and trade cooldown) to discourage gambling sites’ ability to operate and protect Steam users from fraud. And we forbid any gambling-related business to participate in or sponsor tournaments for our games.”
On the other hand, esports betting sites are already a prominent variable in many of Valve’s official events. 1xBet has been named the official betting sponsor for IEM and ESL events, including the ongoing ESL Pro League Season 22. PGL also teamed up with 1xBet for a year-long partnership as the organizer’s official betting partner. Many organizations and teams brandish betting site logos on their jerseys and content, too.
Valve on NYAG’s proposed changes
Valve also shared their concerns with the changes proposed by the Attorney General. First, they outright declined to disable the trading and transferability of cases and their contents.
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 Pokemon 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.
Another concern they voiced is the NYAG’s proposal to gather more information about users beyond what Valve already collects to verify and process payments “on the off-chance someone in New York was… using a VPN.”
This would have involved implementing invasive technologies for every user worldwide. Similarly, the NYAG demanded that Valve collect more personal data about our users to do additional age verification—even though most payment methods used by New York Steam users already have age verification built-in. 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.
Closing their statement, Valve said that they respect New York laws and will comply if the legislature passes laws that govern mystery boxes which is “something it has not done despite considering the issue a few times.”
“The type of commitments the NYAG demanded from Valve went far beyond what existing New York law requires and even beyond New York itself. It may have been easier and cheaper for Valve to make a deal with the NYAG, but we believed the type of deal that would satisfy the NYAG would have been bad for users and other game developers, and impacted our ability to innovate in game design,” Valve added.
Gun games bad? Valve says no
The NYAG, in their press release, mentioned how violent games encourages violent behavior in the youth.
In addition, although this case is about illegal gambling, it is important to note that Valve’s promotion of games that glorify violence and guns helps fuel the dangerous epidemic of gun violence, particularly among young gamers who can become numbed to grave violence before their brains are fully developed.
New York State Office of the Attorney General
Valve also responded to this, saying:
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.
Valve Corporation
Valve also emphasized the importance of keeping its gamers involved and informed. “We wanted to make sure you were aware of the potential impact to users in New York and elsewhere.”