In response to a lawsuit previously filed by the State of New York regarding the alleged encouragement of gambling in the weapon boxes of "Counter-Strike 2", Valve officially submitted a motion to dismiss to the court. In this response, Valve compared the unboxing mechanism in the game to surprise toys in baseball cards, Labubu dolls, and even Wonder Eggs, insisting that "people like surprises" and warning that if the New York State wins the lawsuit, hundreds of daily business practices will be jeopardized.
In February this year, New York State filed a lawsuit against Valve, demanding "comprehensive refunds" for players, noting that "Valve's loot box mechanism poses the same dangers as casino gambling, especially for children." The core of the controversy lies in CS2's weapon box system: players buy keys to open the box and have a chance to get rare skins worth hundreds or even thousands of dollars, but more often they can only get low-value duplicate items. The system has been criticized by parents and regulators for years because of the large number of minors involved.
In its motion to dismiss, Valve argued: "If New York State considers loot boxes to be gambling, then baseball cards, toys in Wonder Eggs, Chuck E. Cheese arcade ticket redemptions... would all be lumped together in the same category. "Each of these transactions - and many more like them - involved the purchase of random items that could be resold for cash. No court would allow an executive to criminalize such a 'staggering amount of everyday conduct' without expressly prohibiting it by statute. This court should not be the first," Valve wrote.
Valve further emphasized: "People like surprises. Part of the appeal of many popular collectibles, from baseball cards to breakfast cereal boxes, is the possibility of obtaining rare items when opening the sealed packaging. No legislative body or court has ever held that this behavior is illegal gambling."
Valve also warned that if the court sided with the state's position, it would "create uncertainty for hundreds of day-to-day business transactions." The company asked back: "Can parents buy baseball card packs for their kids? Can families go to Chuck E. Cheese's to play games of chance and redeem their winning tickets for prizes? Can kids pull surprise toys out of cereal boxes?" Valve argued that these actions are by definition the same as unboxing, and it would be "ridiculous" to label both as gambling.
Additionally, Valve noted that "no other states criminalize blind or mystery boxes," so the company has "no reason to believe its actions are illegal."