Valve wants the lawsuit against Counter-Strike loot boxes to be dismissed, and they presented some very strong arguments for why the lawsuit should be thrown out.
New York wants to sue Valve over the CS2 case system, claiming that loot boxes function as gambling. To that, Valve responded with “people enjoy surprises.”
The main debate here is whether Counter-Strike cases are just mystery collectibles, or basically an online casino.
In the mainstream shooter Counter-Strike 2, players buy keys to open cases and receive a random skin. Some skins are worth hundreds, and some even thousands of dollars, which is exactly why the lawsuit accusing the system of gambling was started. However, Valve argues that the skins obtained from cases only have subjective aesthetic value, are not real money, and therefore this is not actually gambling because real money is not being lost directly.
Valve’s argument is basically comparing loot boxes to baseball cards, cereal box surprise toys, and Happy Meal toys.
Their argument is that if CS2 cases are gambling, then mystery toys are gambling as well.
They also say that people enjoy surprises, that random collectible systems have existed in games for decades, and that no law has clearly stated that loot boxes are illegal.
New York claims that Valve made billions through its loot box system, that the system even targets minors, and that skins have real market value, while the Steam Marketplace and third-party sites practically allow cash-outs.
In other words, this is not just a cosmetic system, but an economy based on RNG and speculation.
This is not just about CS as the problem, because if Valve loses the lawsuit, the entire loot box system in the gaming industry could change, gacha games could also come under pressure because of this, and marketplace economies could become far more regulated than before.
And since the CS skin market is MASSIVE, the consequences would be huge for everything.
Valve has a legally interesting argument, but many players still see cases as gambling, especially because skins have real value.
This could actually become one of the most important gaming court cases of the last few years, because if the court says that CS loot boxes ARE gambling, then the entire industry could start changing.
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