Valve noted that the attorney general had first reached out to the company in early 2023 where it had made similar comparisons. The studio also said that its players “don’t have to open mystery boxes” in order to play its games. “In fact, most of you don’t open any boxes at all and just play the games—because the items in the boxes are purely cosmetic, there is no disadvantage to a player not spending money.”

As for the lawsuit itself, Valve has said that it has “serious concerns” about the changes the New York attorney general wants the company to make to its games. Among these changes is making loot boxes and their contents non-transferrable.

“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.”

The company has also called out the attorney general’s proposal to gather “additional information” on each one of the players “on the off-chance someone in New York was anonymizing their location to appear outside of New York, such as by using a VPN.” This could lead Valve to implement invasive technologies for the purposes of this data collection, which would include age verification, despite payment processors already having age verification built into their systems.

“We respect New York’s right to determine the laws governing behavior in the state. We will of course comply if the New York legislature passes laws governing mystery boxes—something it has not done despite considering the issue a few times,” wrote the company. “Such laws would be the result of a public process, presumably with input from the industry and New York gamers. 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.”

As for the attorney general’s comments attempting to draw correlations between video games, violence in the real world, and the effect this might have on children, Valve has said that they serve as “a distraction and a mischaracterization we’ve all heard before.” Closing things out, the company makes a note of “many studies” highlighting the “beneficial impact” that games have on their players, and that it will ultimately wait for a court’s decision on the matter rather than trying to settle with the state of New York.

“In Valve’s most popular game, the process resembles a slot machine, with an animated spinning wheel that eventually rests on a selected item. The randomly selected virtual items have no in-game functionality but can be sold online for money, with one item reportedly being sold for more than $1 million.”

The lawsuit alleges that, through this promotion, Valve has earned “billions of dollars” by luring players to engage with gambling in the hopes of winning these items.

“Illegal gambling can be harmful and lead to serious addiction problems, especially for our young people,” said James. “Valve has made billions of dollars by letting children and adults alike illegally gamble for the chance to win valuable virtual prizes. These features are addictive, harmful, and illegal, and my office is suing to stop Valve’s illegal conduct and protect New Yorkers.”

Aside from the monetary value of the items, the crux of the lawsuit seems to revolve around Valve’s use of loot boxes, which the press release compares with slot machines due to the random nature of the rewards. The nature of the loot boxes also results in some items being rarer than others, which in turn has the added effect of making them more valuable in the market.

The fact that third-party markets also exist, making it easier to liquidate money that would have otherwise remained in the Steam ecosystem, is also a major cause for concern. “Users can also connect their Valve accounts to third-party marketplaces where the virtual items can then be sold directly for cash. The [Office of the Attorney General]’s investigation found that Valve facilitates and even assists these third-party marketplaces in their operations.”

“The high value of Counter-Strike’s rare skins and the ease of liquidating items through third-party marketplaces have made Valve’s virtual items an attractive target for thieves. Valve has received hundreds of thousands of support requests from users reporting that their Steam accounts had been hacked, or that they had been tricked into transferring items to a bad actor.”

There is also a focus on how Valve’s loot boxes adversely affect children. James has noted that they can entice younger players into gambling their limited funds because the loot boxes have the potential to offer lucrative rewards.

While the press release hasn’t confirmed what kinds of damages or penalties James is seeking from Valve through this lawsuit, it has noted that she wants to “permanently stop Valve from promoting gambling features in its games,” while also divesting itself of its “ill-got gains”, and pay fines for the violation of New York’s laws.

The blog post is also a call to action to creators in the Team Fortress 2 community, as the content officially coming to the game as part of the update will feature things from the Steam Workshop. Valve is inviting creators to submit their projects on to the Steam Workshop by May 1.

Currently, the update doesn’t yet have a clear theme, or even a name. Following Team Fortress 2 update trends, however, there will likely be an overarching theme for the update that will likely be revealed when we’re closer to the update being released.

In the blog post, Valve also promises that the new update will be unlike its usual summer events in recent times, and instead will be a “full-on update-sized update”. There is also no word of a solid release date for the update, but going by the deadline for submissions, it will likely be released in May or later.

Team Fortress 2 is available for free on PC.

Agent 47 – Hitman Series

Enhanced speed, reflexes, strength and even a slight healing factor – Agent 47 possesses all of this and more, further supplemented by training in all forms of assassination. That includes sniping, as he can take down targets and vanish with barely any trace. Such is his overall infamy that he’s considered a legend in the ICA and will go to any lengths to kill a target.

Voice actor Rick May, known for his role as Team Fortress 2’s Soldier and for playing Peppy in Star Fox 64, has passed away. May suffered a stroke this past February and contracted the COVID-19 coronavirus while in rehabilitation. He would pass away from the disease at the age of 79 years.

The Rekindle School reported on May’s passing here, though access to the site is currently limited. May was a teacher at the school and along with being a voice actor, worked at the Renton Civic Theater and Civic Light Opera. He also appeared in a number of different shows like Death of a Salesman, Fiddler on the Roof and so on.

Though May is most iconic for his role as the Soldier in Valve’s team-based shooter, he’s also known for the “Do a barrel roll” line from Star Fox 64 (and voicing Andross as well). Other credits include Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves and Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition. Our condolences go out to his family and friends who are coping with this tragic loss.

Pokemon – Self-Destruct, Hyper Beam, Etc.

Anyone who’s played Pokemon, even the first generation, will be familiar with attacks like Self-Destruct. You know, the one where your Pokemon explodes to damage and/or kill the enemy? It’s pretty metal but how in the world do the Pokemon just faint? Even if there is some logical explanation, how do all of these cataclysmic beam attacks result in Pokemon? Given how Gary’s Raticate died, we’re motivated to think that some of these attacks are killing Pokemon (even if that particular theory involves the Raticate not receiving medial attention in time).

Guitar Hero

Guitar Hero was the first word in rhythm-based games when it first rolled around. Though mass appeal helped it to achieve great success, actually trying to get good at the game was a task. Mastering the basic controls? No problem. Trying to advance up the ladder and surpass some of the tougher songs, especially Through the Fire and The Flames? It’s definitely not for everyone. Regardless, Guitar Hero was a fun era in gaming.

Though he left the company last year along with other writers, Portal 2 writer Jay Pinkerton is now back with Valve. A Redditor first noticed Pinkerton’s name under “Other Experts” on Valve’s staff page and PC Gamer learned officially from Valve that he was back with the company.

Pinkerton also worked on Left 4 Dead 1 and 2 along with writing comics for Team Fortress 2 while he was at Valve. His return doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s working on a Portal sequel or anything related to much-desired sequels for Left 4 Dead or even Half-Life. Instead, it could be a result of Valve’s renewed focus on shipping games.

In the past few years, the company has been synonymous with its uber-popular online store Steam, the uber-popular MOBA Dota 2 and the fairly popular competitive shooter Counter-Strike: GO. However, along with announcing a new CCG title called Artifact, Valve also acquired Firewatch developer Campo Santo. What could Valve have planned for the future? Let us know your theories in the comments below.

Dark Samus (Hypermode) – Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

Dark Samus can be quite the annoyance when you’re trying to wrap up Samus’s latest adventure. However, play on Hypermode and it’s a whole other ball game. Her attacks can be difficult to dodge, she dishes them out frequently and you then have to deal with another boss right after. Suffice to say, you better know what you’re doing when fighting her.

Duke Nukem Forever

Duke Nukem Forever was in the works since 1996. 3D Realms would infamously throw the “when it’s done” line while hopping from one engine to the next. After a conflict with publisher Take Two Interactive, 3D Realms eventually went bankrupt. The project didn’t die – it’s rights were eventually acquired by Gearbox Software and Duke Nukem Forever released in 2011. Surprise, surprise but it was mostly mediocre. And don’t worry – this isn’t the last time we’ll mention the Borderlands developer.