New York, Mar 12: Video game developer Valve Corporation has rejected allegations made in a lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James that some of its popular titles promote illegal gambling through the use of so-called “loot boxes”.
In a message sent to players in New York on March 11, the company said it disagrees with claims that mystery boxes in its games violate state gambling laws.
The lawsuit, filed in February, names titles such as Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2 and Team Fortress 2.According to the lawsuit, Valve encourages gambling by allowing users to pay to open virtual containers, commonly known as loot boxes, which provide a chance to obtain rare cosmetic items.
Some of these items can later be traded or sold online, occasionally for significant sums.Responding to the allegations, Valve said the mechanism is comparable to well-known products in the physical world and does not amount to gambling.
The company also emphasised that items obtained from such boxes are purely cosmetic and do not affect gameplay or provide competitive advantages.Valve said it has taken steps to prevent misuse of its platform in connection with gambling or fraud.
According to the company, more than one million Steam accounts linked to activities such as gambling, fraud and theft have been locked.It added that features including trade reversals and cooldown periods between trades were introduced to protect users and reduce potential abuse.
The developer also criticised some measures proposed in the lawsuit, including restrictions on the transfer of digital items and requirements to collect additional personal data from users.
Valve said removing the ability to trade items could harm consumers by preventing them from selling or exchanging unwanted digital items, while additional data collection for location tracking or age verification could raise privacy concerns for users worldwide.
