this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2026
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The lawsuit aims to "stop Valve from promoting gambling features in its games, disgorge all ill-gotten gains, and pay fines for violating New York\u2019s laws."

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[–] CovfefeKills@lemmy.world 1 points 12 minutes ago

Finally someone standing upto Valve for the right reasons.

[–] kugmo@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

Interesting how this just happens after Valve wins against the Rothschilds in court, despite the lootboxes being available for the past 10 or so years in Counter Strike and Team Fortress 2.

[–] Herr_S_aus_H@lemmy.zip -2 points 22 minutes ago (1 children)

Not everything is a conspiracy and the jews are not behind everything.

[–] HK65@sopuli.xyz 1 points 6 minutes ago

Jews are not, billionaires are

[–] Joeffect@lemmy.world 10 points 3 hours ago

If this stops loot boxes in general I'm all for it... can we also ban the sale of suprise toys also then because its the same thing as this...

Fuck we can go maximum carnage and stop the sale of card packs like pokemon and mtg and everything else as those are loot crates also

[–] eestileib@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 7 hours ago

They're not wrong, it is gambling.

[–] TheObviousSolution@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 hours ago

This is coming in so late that it basically seems to be more of a move for someone to run their political career off of. There are so many worse offenders now, while Steam was basically one of the least gregarious ones. Unfortunately for Steam, it is a corrupt market nowadays, and it's always going to be the least corrupt, private entities who get singled out. You can specially tell its political when it's flying under the "protect the children" flag, gambling in general has gotten out of hand and needs to be toned down, for all ages. Going after one company isn't going to fix this, it needs to be legislation wide.

[–] HollowNaught@lemmy.world 23 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

country finally starts cracking down on gambling

oh no wait nevermind they just want to sue a videogame company

[–] thedeadwalking4242@lemmy.world 8 points 8 hours ago

KELSHI LITERALLY HAS SUPER BOWL ADS. WHAT DO YOU MEAN GOOD SIR.

People never cease to amaze me.

[–] RickyRigatoni@piefed.zip 37 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

Finally a lawsuit against valve I can support.

[–] Covenant@sh.itjust.works 1 points 57 minutes ago

If this will be fixed i have nothing against Valve. This lootbox gamble situation is really the only bad thing I can think of that steam does. For the rest Valve feels pro-consumer.

[–] kittenzrulz123@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

The lawsuit also claims that CS2 and other FPSs are causing kids to become violent

[–] RickyRigatoni@piefed.zip 18 points 8 hours ago

Finally a lawsuit against valve I can support 99% of.

[–] Fizz@lemmy.nz 4 points 7 hours ago

Good, gambling needs to be cracked down its getting way to bad.

[–] JillyB@beehaw.org 9 points 12 hours ago (3 children)

In this thread: a complete lack of moral clarity as gamers simp for one of the most profitable companies in the industry. Valve was a pioneer of loot boxes. When they got in trouble for CS:GO skin gambling, they did the minimum to make it look like they didn't allow it and allowed it to make an easy comeback. They sit back and make 30% off the sale of every game on the platform. People should be saying that Valve is very bad and Epic is even worse. Instead gamers feel this strange need to pick sides with a giant company that controls almost all PC gaming. No, we can easily say they're all bad.

[–] TheObviousSolution@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 hours ago

They need to get rid of Steam to begin rolling out cloud computing. They've already started the phase were people can no longer realistic build the rigs they could build a year ago.

You are right, they are all bad. Singling out any company isn't helping out. That's the problem with this lawsuit, it is not legislative, it is going only after one company under the telltale of politicization "it's for the children" with a fair amount of false accusations that "CS2 and other FPSs are causing kids to become violent". This is to build up Leticia James' political career by going after an easier target that does not have the political ties other marketplaces have and it will not fix the system, but just allow the competitors to thrive.

Now that doesn't mean she's doing as part of some conspiratorial shift to cloud computing, it just means that the parties interested in that shift generally encourage and do nothing to oppose this sort of intervention whereas in the past it might have been opposed to because of the hurdle of precedence they could help to establish - which no longer matters as much because half the Supreme Court is corrupt anyway and can just hallucinate the precedence away in an exercise of mental gymnastics in their opinion.

You don't think it matters, just look at the shitshow YouTube is increasingly becoming, because that's what a lot of rich assholes want to appropriate and coerce Steam into becoming. Fear the day Steam goes public.

[–] Smaile@lemmy.ca 2 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Reminder most vg marketplace charge 30% on sale on they're platform. Steam isn't charging much different then it used to.

[–] JillyB@beehaw.org 3 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Again, those other marketplaces are bad too. Saying Valve is bad isn't saying another company is good and calling another company bad doesn't mean I have to say valve is good.

[–] Agent_Karyo@piefed.world 4 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Not everyone has loyalty to Valve or any company.

[–] JillyB@beehaw.org 4 points 11 hours ago (5 children)

Not everyone, but plenty of people in this thread do. And plenty of gamers in general excuse their bad behavior.

[–] Agent_Karyo@piefed.world 2 points 11 hours ago

That's true. I've gotten pushback for criticizing Valve and there is a lot to criticize.

They might be better in some way than other US tech companies, but that's doesn't mean much.

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[–] inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world 32 points 16 hours ago
[–] SculptusPoe@lemmy.world -1 points 5 hours ago

Somehow all of New York has little big man syndrome.

[–] glitchdx@lemmy.world 89 points 21 hours ago (3 children)

On the one hand, good. Valve needs to be held responsible for this.

On the other hand, steam has the best parental controls of any platform I've ever seen. You can just not let your kid play those games. Parents should take responsibility for their kids. Games already have ratings and warnings and such.

On the third hand, I forsee this as being yet another means of forcing ID checks and face scanning into the platform. I don't trust our government not to fuck this up in the worst way possible right now.

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[–] MehBlah@lemmy.world 18 points 17 hours ago (4 children)

I quit playing games with loot boxes. Having said that my experience and valve with loot boxes were they were cosmetic only. I may be wrong about that.

[–] PlzGivHugs@sh.itjust.works 11 points 13 hours ago

They are only cosmetic, but absolutely still gambling. That said, the design and use of the market and operations did mean it was far easier to avoid and far cheaper. For example, you could get basically a full loadout of skins, without ever opening a lootbox, for far less. Doesn't change the fact that the lootboxes in CS (and everything else) need to be regulated though.

[–] chuckleslord@lemmy.world 13 points 15 hours ago

Them being cosmetics doesn't change anything. People want cosmetics, they made a gambling system to get them, easy-as.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 17 points 17 hours ago (4 children)

Cosmetic or not, they are still mechanically the same as a slot machine.

[–] blockheadjt@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 hours ago

It may be problematic but I see it as less problematic than non-cosmetic items like Magic card packs

[–] BananaIsABerry@lemmy.zip 3 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Not mechanically the same at all. The reason they can skirt by and have not been considered 'gambling' is largely due to the fact that you always win something, even if the player to player market dictates that item as worthless.

A slot machine literally just takes your money and you are left with nothing but having pushed a button for the pretty lights and fun noises.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 1 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

A slot machine literally just takes your money and you are left with nothing but having pushed a button for the pretty lights and fun noises.

What do you think video game cosmetics are if not pretty lights and fun noises?

[–] BananaIsABerry@lemmy.zip 2 points 9 hours ago

I mean, fair, but it's a digital item that you get to keep.

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[–] Ganbat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 161 points 1 day ago (14 children)

Gotta love how they just randomly threw in that long-disproved little tidbit about violent videogames making kids into psychopaths. Way to discredit your whole stance.

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