Two weeks after the state of New York sued Valve for "letting children and adults illegally gamble," Valve has fired back with a defense of its practices, saying it doesn't believe the containers in its games constitute gambling under the state's laws and expressing disappointment that the attorney general's office would opt to pursue the case despite Valve's efforts "to educate them about our virtual items and mystery boxes."
The New York attorney general's office reached out about its concerns in early 2023, Valve said in its lengthy rebuttal, at which point the company told the AG that loot boxes "are widely used, not just in videogames but in the tangible world as well," comparing them to things like baseball cards, "which generations have grown up opening," as well as Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering, and Labubu. It also points out that because all of the items in Valve's loot boxes are purely cosmetic, players aren't actually incentivized to open them: "there is no disadvantage to a player not spending money."
