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Valve is one of the most prestigious and respected companies in the world. It's no wonder why they've garnered such massive support from their customers and the gaming audience in general. The list of their good deeds is quite extensive, but arguably more important is how unlike many other tech companies, they have avoided inshitification. Just imagine how much worse Steam could be if they added a bunch of unnecessary AI into it. Just imagine. They're basically the Costco of game publishers, a company that despite success, still clings to their values, a consumer-first approach, for the most part. What's Valve's take on piracy?
Piracy to us, so we don't really worry about piracy. That's That's awful, dude. No. Eat my entire ass. You know, when we think, you know, when you look at the top 10 issues on our list at any given point in time, piracy is almost never, you know, something that's that's on that list. From our point of view, what we saw more and more is the piracy is a result of bad [snorts] service on the part of game companies. They're the type of company whose business practices would drive Mr. Krabs insane. Not many companies give out unsolicited refunds or retroactive discounts if you happen to purchase a game shortly before it goes up on sale.
Unlike Activision or EA, Valve doesn't annualize their franchises or milk them to death. They do the exact opposite. Valve is an outlier because it's not just the good things that they've done, but rather the horrible things they've avoided doing. And as the old saying goes, When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all. Now, they're not a perfect company, and I did a whole video a while back on the many, many controversies, mistakes, greed, and stupid decisions they've made in the past, but this is not that video because at the risk of becoming the leave alone the multi-billion dollar company guy, but it's safe to say there is a targeted attack a war if you will
against valve for reasons that we're going to uncover in this video with far too many coincidences to ignore and the more you look into it well it's just say the tinfoil hat gets bigger and bigger. But before we get too deep into this topic, I want to thank the sponsor of today's video chime. Chime is the most loved banking app. Times are tough and money is tight. It's one of the biggest stressors in everyday life and chime takes that weight off your shoulders a bit. They offer up to 3.5% APY. That is eight times higher than the national average and when I opened my first savings account, you know what my interest rates were?.26.
Yeah, a lot different. I wish I had chime when I started saving years ago, but you don't have to be like me. You don't have to be a fool who doesn't invest his money properly. You can open an account with chime and start saving today and there's no need to worry about monthly annual or overdraft fees. Sign up today because there's no better way to secure your savings and your future than with chime. Use my special link in the description or scan the QR code on screen to sign up today and get started and thank you chime for sponsoring this video. And now for something completely different.
Presented for your perusal exhibit A. Valve wins lawsuit against Rothschild and associated entities with a jury agreeing they violated an anti-patent troll protection act. Yes, they won this lawsuit filed in 2023. Valve was going toe-to-toe with the Rothschilds, the very same Rothschilds who have remained one of the wealthiest banking families for the last 300 years. Yet they still don't have enough money. So this guy Lee Rothschild is basically what's called a patent troll. A patent troll is basically someone who creates or acquires numerous patents, produces absolutely nothing with them, and makes a living through litigation. People who violate those patents. Think of the Nemesis system in Shadow of War. It's
basically idea hoarding. Not the most noble of professions. You'd have significantly more dignity working as a stripper in my opinion. So what? Valve wins a $152,000 settlement with some billionaire patent troll. Uh what's what's the big deal? Well, coincidentally, just a few days after this, the New York State Attorney General, Letitia James, announced that they were suing Valve. What for? To protect children, of course. Would I lie? That's a rather strange coincidence, wouldn't you say? But as one trained in the force, you know that true coincidences are rare.
I mean, granted, big corporations deal with lots of lawsuits. They have big legal teams. So this could just be happenstance, right? Valve's former economist is being put on trial for promoting drug use because he admitted to taking ecstasy 36 years ago. That's right, kids. If you touch that weed joint 36 years from now, you're going to regret it. Are you kidding me? What? There's no statute of limitations on drug use? 36 years ago, bro. That's a lifetime for me. That's more than a lifetime ago. Now, the Greek member of parliament who's being sued right now basically said that he had experienced ecstasy once 36 years ago in Sydney, ended up regretting it, and saying, "No matter how pleasant drug taking may seem, there
is a price to pay." So not promoting drug use? That's a reach. It's a Halo reach. I suppose this is all coincidence? Dark forces are at work pushing us into a post-modern version of the dark ages. They are out there to take away from us the last remnants of autonomy and freedom that we have. Resistance is literally existence. Oh, okay, that's why they're going after them. And just a month ago, Valve was thrown into a $900 million lawsuit over PC monopoly claims. This lawsuit gaining the support coincidentally of Steam competitor Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney. That's a whole can of worms on its own. Now, let's focus on this latest lawsuit, which is about gambling CS
I almost said CS:GO. It's Counter-Strike 2 now. Counter-Strike 2 skins, loot boxes. Yeah, remember that whole controversy that really blew up like 9 years ago? I decided to make our own CS:GO gambling site called babygambles.net. We believe that 13-year-old is way too old to get started gambling, and we want the age go down to five. You're a little late to the party here, Letitia James, but the lawsuit and what she's alleging contains some pretty serious, shall we say, logical flaws. 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 contact and protect New Yorkers. First off, this is not the real reason, and it has two community notes. Counter-Strike is rated M with Steam parental controls. Minors playing reflects parental supervision choices only. Yes, it all comes back to that sage old wisdom of being present in your child's life. Cosmetics are optional with disclosed ads and no cash out on Steam. Firms shouldn't be penalized for creating products so popular that users themselves deem valuable. Now, for whatever reason, in this lawsuit, they also included this passage. 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. Ms. James, it appears you should worry about your own underdeveloped brain because this argument has been Bro, I literally made a video about this like 9 years ago. That's crazy. And even then it was an outdated argument. Are they going to become violent just by playing Grand Auto Theft? Grand Auto
This is an outdated argument from the '90s. On this basis alone, making this accusation is so wildly out of touch that any reasonable person should just invalidate and discount your opinion entirely. Like and the allegation that Valve promotes games that glorify violence, I JUST LIKE WHERE WOULD I EVEN BEGIN? Young gamers who can become numbed to grave violence. I'm confused. Is this about gambling or about violence in video games? It's like you're you're late to the party, extremely late on both fronts. This seems like it was a hastily cobbled together list of grievances that are as poorly
constructed in their thought as they are outdated. Now, here's what I will say. Loot boxes are still a problem. And Valve should not be given a get-out-of-jail-free card when it comes to all of the ethical consequences of loot boxes, gambling, and the effect that can have on people. There is, you know, genuine horror stories. People's lives have been destroyed by gambling. The only monster here is the gambling monster that has enslaved your mother. I CALL HIM GAMBLOR. AND THEY DO share a ton of responsibility for the popularity of loot boxes as a business practice in the gaming industry. Team Fortress 2 basically set the template for this that other companies like EA would use in much more nefarious ways. Valve has even
fine-tuned their loot boxes to work around European gambling laws and regulations. But here's the thing, if your goal is to protect children from gambling, uh why just Valve? Like just Valve. No other company that has loot boxes? FIFA doesn't have an Ultimate Team, neither does Madden anymore? Like EA's all good? Yeah EA's great. Oh, okay. It's Valve that's the problem. Just Valve. Now, here's why Valve is not the worst offender. For starters, I've been on Steam for well over a decade and I have never been compelled to buy a loot box personally. Their service as a PC storefront and the games that do have microtransactions can be enjoyed to their fullest without ever touching a loot games and products. Halo 5 or
Battlefront 2, where the loot boxes actually have an effect on the gameplay end product, not just a visual aesthetic change. Games that monetize their gameplay, uh pay-to-win, is infinitely worse in my opinion than cosmetic only. With Counter-Strike skins, they do have real-world tradeable value, like a Pokémon card. I suppose that is part of the problem as third-party gambling sites have propped up and at times Valve has struggled to take action against them and become complicit in the problem, but they have taken action even as long ago as 2016. All of this is to say, Valve is far from the worst offender when it comes to gambling that is addictive and harmful to children. Nobody in their right mind
is going to give the loot boxes and monetization a Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2 a free pass. There's obviously problems. The point is, if Valve is not the worst offender, then who is and why aren't you going after them? You want to talk about protecting children? Uh maybe go after Roblox. And if the goal is truly to regulate gambling better, did you watch the Super Bowl? Have you watched the NFL this last season? Is it not a massive conflict of interest for the NFL to have ads to bet on the games that you are watching on their network? Is that not That's cool? I'm fine with like YouTubers doing a DraftKings ad read, but when you have NFL commentators giving their gambling predictions on a
NFL broadcast, that seems like a bigger deal to me. The consequences of winning or losing this lawsuit are huge. Letitia James seeks to permanently stop Valve from promoting gambling features in its games, disgorge all ill-gotten gains, pay back all the money the billions of dollars they made, and pay fines for violating New York's laws. Should they lose this lawsuit, which I can't imagine they will, it could also start a domino effect that spreads to other states and more lawsuits. This lawsuit is filled with other bogus allegations. They posted a screenshot alleging that Counter-Strike has a near-miss mechanic where you will see a very valuable item, but you won't actually win it. It's a tease. However, Valve removed this
feature back in 2018, and the screenshot presented has been tracked down by internet sleuths showing the exact opposite of what is being alleged in the lawsuit. The guy actually won this. What is it called when you present evidence that undermines your own case? That's a contradiction, Yugi boy. I think it's pretty clear these lawsuits and this war against Valve has ulterior motives behind it. Again, why are you not suing Polymaker or Kalse or Blizzard, Epic, EA? So, what is the real motivation? Well, put on the tin foil hat, people. Let me spin you a yarn. Let me tell you uh my theory. I think it's pretty clear. As we've been seeing this push in technology across the world that corporations, CEOs are vying for more control. They're putting AI into
everything, harvesting data. They want more forms of verification that they never asked for before. Despite all of Roblox's numerous child safety features, sexual exploitation cases on the game have skyrocketed in the last few years. There is such a hardcore push for digital verification that you've got Discord pushing it. Discord, who is partnered with a company associated with Peter Thiel, the guy who's running Palantir. We I made a video about that on the second channel. Go subscribe to ActMan TV if you haven't already. And subscribe to this channel. I really appreciate it. But as discussed in the Discord video, Peter Thiel is intent on setting up this like nation-wide, world-wide surveillance
state where you have no privacy. That's the long and short of it. The tech world is pushing an aggressive approach to age verification. And Valve owns one of the largest digital storefronts in the world. Steam has about 132 million monthly active users. But it's because Valve does not play by the rules set by other public companies in harvesting their users' data that makes them a massive barrier in the tech industry's ultimate goal of establishing a mass surveillance state. You know, a few years ago this would have sounded crazy to me, too. But especially after seeing Discord try to pull this stuff, it is not a coincidence. And although it is speculation on my part, that is the
reason I believe why Valve is being targeted, why there is a war against Valve being waged through the form of various lawsuits and litigation. 132 million monthly active users. Can you not see a world in which people want the data and the information and the IDs of million people? That's why they're being sued. It is so ridiculous that apparently even calculator firmware is being restricted unless users verify their age, right? This is That's what this is about. And you can see in the lawsuit, Valve does not verify the age of Steam users. This is a problem. You see all these instances of Stop Killing Games, AI data centers popping up, AI being shoved into everything, age verification across all of our
apps, increasingly raised prices on things like subscriptions and Xbox Game Pass. These are not all isolated independent events in my opinion. I think it is a greater push by these out-of-touch billionaire tech CEOs to exert as much control over the population as possible. The safety rules also apply on the internet. These rules include never giving out personal information. And Valve has access to one of the largest audiences and the broadest demographics, I think, on the planet. The increasing RAM prices, just as the enshittification of everything tech is not just a coincidence, neither is this war against Valve. And I wager it has very little to do with gambling.
Valve is being targeted because they are independent and they're different from all of the other companies enshittifying everything. They might be the single biggest legal test case in gaming. And if they fall, it's only going to get worse. So, what are we left with? Well, we have a series of lawsuits and claims filled with evidence contradicting their accusations. These suspicious lawsuits come against Valve at a time when tech companies seem insistent on gathering more and more personal and identifying information from users, removing any semblance of privacy, potentially setting up a nationwide surveillance state, monitoring every single thing you do on the internet, and then feeding all
of that information into an AI algorithm to then exploit you. The tin foil hat might be on a bit snug or a bit too loose. In any case, an attorney general who is 30 years late to the violence in video games debate uh should not be taken seriously, and said attorney general's motives and intentions must be called into serious question, especially considering Valve is nowhere near being public enemy number one in the gambling is bad for people business. Judging by the matrix-like dystopia the tech industry is going in, I'd wager these lawsuits are not for anyone's benefit but the corporate elite. One could say we are heading towards a world in which no man is free. But, those are my thoughts on
the lawsuits Valve is facing and the war against Valve and Steam. How do you think things will turn out? Valve has a killer team of lawyers, so it's not going to be an easy fight. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Check out my older video, The Rise and Fall of Valve, if you want a more critical approach to their company's history, and subscribe to The Act Man for more awesome content. Thank you, Chime, for sponsoring this video. All right, everyone, that's all I got for today. This is The Free Man signing out. Peace.
