Gamers Pick Sides As New York Sues Valve Over Loot Boxes

The New York State attorney general is suing Valve over its use of loot boxes in games like Counter-Strike 2. The reaction to this lawsuit has led to Twitter users ratioing Attorney General Letitia James, while others are hopeful that the legal challenge could force Valve to clamp down on the shady world of skin gambling.

On February 25, NY Attorney General James announced that she and her office had filed a lawsuit against Valve, claiming the company’s popular online storefront, Steam, was promoting and supporting illegal gambling that violated the state’s laws. In a press release, James alleged that “Illegal gambling can be harmful and lead to serious addiction problems,” especially for children and teens. NY’s AG is looking to stop Valve from selling loot boxes and keys in New York and is seeking fines against the company for its actions. In 2023, Valve made nearly a billion dollars selling loot box keys in Counter-Strike.

As you can imagine, a lot of people had thoughts to share about one of the biggest and most-liked game companies in the world being threatened with a lawsuit involving some of the most popular games around.

The internet reacts to NY’s Valve loot box lawsuit

In less than 24 hours, NY Attorney General James’ tweet announcing the lawsuit against Valve has already received over 8,000 replies and hundreds of quotes, many of which are angry at the most powerful legal officer in the state going after the company behind Half-Life. This is basically the closest angry gamers can get to “review bombing” the AG. The tweet has also been given a community-approved note stating that Counter-Strike is rated M for mature, and thus that minors playing it and using its loot boxes is not Valve’s fault.

Many replied to the lawsuit announcement by naming other studios and games that they feel should be sued for their loot boxes, like EA, Activision, and plenty of gacha mobile games. Others angrily argued that trading cards and toy-dispensing coin-op machines are no different or are even worse than what Valve is doing with loot boxes and paid keys in Counter-Strike 2. And hey, because this is Twitter, there were plenty of people alleging some sort of conspiracy connecting the AG’s lawsuit in New York to a different legal case that Valve just beat in Washington State. (To be clear: That is completely silly and exactly what I’d expect from the internet in 2026.)

Valve, a video game developer, has made billions of dollars by letting children and adults illegally gamble for the chance to win valuable virtual prizes. 

These features are addictive and harmful.

That’s why I’m suing to stop Valve’s unlawful conduct and protect New Yorkers.

— NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) February 25, 2026

Perhaps the most interesting reaction to the lawsuit can be found on Reddit on subreddits dedicated to Valve, Steam, and its games. Here, while you’ll still find angry gamers defending Valve and attacking James’ lawsuit, there are plenty of people basically going “Yeah, about time, honestly.”

“It’s absolutely gambling IMO. Interested to see how this plays out,” posted one user on the Steam subreddit. Another user pointed out that in the past, lawsuits like this have forced Valve to improve. “Valve has been sued into better practices before, such as refunds,” explained a person on the same subreddit. “Valve are really good to consumers, but they aren’t perfect. The refund policy was a huge win, and loot boxes are a plague on gaming,” said someone else on the Valve subreddit.

Many are hopeful that if this lawsuit succeeds, it could force Valve to make big changes to how its predatory loot boxes work and crack down on third-party skin casinos and trading sites even more so than it has in the past.

New York’s AG says violent games ‘fuel’ gun violence

Of course, a lot of the goodwill online and support from gamers has quickly started to disappear as people read the AG’s full press release and discovered this nugget about violent games tucked away in the text.

“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.”

Oops! Once that bit of the press release started spreading around, people online started calling this lawsuit a Trojan horse and claimed the AG was looking to go after violent games involving guns in the future. Video games being used as a scapegoat to blame away mass shootings and gun crime is nothing new, but seeing it tucked away in this press release announcing a lawsuit involving loot boxes and gambling is very odd. And as always, the evidence isn’t there to back up these claims that violent games create violent people who shoot others and need to be censored more or differently than movies or books.

I doubt very much the AG cared much about games media and gamers supporting her lawsuit against Valve. Regardless, that won’t happen now. Valve has yet to respond to the lawsuit filed by the state of New York.