Valve has responded to the New York Attorney General's lawsuit, stating it has "serious concerns with the alterations the NYAG claims are necessary to make to our games."

The attorney general of New York, Letitia James, announced her office was suing Valve at the end of February, alleging the platform illegally promotes gambling to children. Following an investigation, the office of the attorney general "found that Valve’s video games, including Counter-Strike 2, Team Fortress 2, and Dota 2, enable gambling by enticing users to pay for the chance to win a rare virtual item of significant monetary value."

"In Valve’s most popular game [Counter-Strike 2], 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 Valve has made billions of dollars luring its users, many of whom are teenagers or younger, to engage in gambling in the hopes of winning expensive virtual items that they can cash in on. With this lawsuit, Attorney General James seeks to permanently stop Valve from continuing to promote illegal gambling in its games and to pay disgorgement and fines."

Unusually for Valve, the company has shared its response publicly, claiming it has been working with the AG since early 2023 to "educate" them on how virtual items are won and shared in its games.

"We shared with the NYAG that these types of boxes in our games are widely used, not just in video games but in the tangible world as well, where generations have grown up opening baseball card packs and blind boxes and bags, and then trading and selling the items they receive," Valve wrote. "On the physical side, popular products used in this way include baseball cards, Pokémon, Magic the Gathering, and Labubu. In the game space, digital packs similar to our boxes date back to 2004 and are in widespread use. Players don't have to open mystery boxes to play Valve 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."

Valve added that it has shared its efforts to shut down accounts found to be using its game items on gambling sites in violation of the Steam Subscriber Agreement, its efforts to combat fraud and theft of users’ items, and "our extraordinary measures to stop gambling sites from taking advantage of Steam accounts and Valve game items."

"Valve does not cooperate with gambling sites. To date, we've locked over one million Steam accounts that were being misused by third parties in connection with gambling, fraud, and theft. We’ve also shipped features (like trade reversal and trade cooldown) to discourage gambling sites’ ability to operate and protect Steam users from fraud. And we forbid any gambling-related business to participate in or sponsor tournaments for our games," the company stressed.

Valve also shared candid observations about the lawsuit, writing: "We have serious concerns with many of the alterations the NYAG claims are necessary to make to our games.

"First, the NYAG seems to believe boxes and their contents should not be transferable. They appear to assume digital mystery boxes and items in our games are different from tangible items like baseball card packs (which contain random cards), and to take issue with the fact that users have the ability to transfer the items they receive through Steam Trading or user-to-user sales on the Community Market. 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."

It also claims that the NYAG wants to gather further personal data from Valve's players — "beyond what we normally collect in the course of processing payments" — including "evasive technologies for every user worldwide." The office is also demanding additional age verification, even though Valve stresses that most payment methods used by Steam users in New York already have age verification built-in. "Valve knows our users care about the security of their personal information, and we believe it’s in our and their interest to only collect the information necessary to operate the business and comply with law," it added.

It also took issue with NYAG's comments about the link between games and real-world violence, which Valve dismisses as "a distraction and a mischaracterization we've all heard before."

Valve closed by writing: "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. Such laws would be the result of a public process, presumably with input from the industry and New York gamers." However, it claims the commitments demanded by the "went far beyond what existing New York law requires and even beyond New York itself," and while it "may have been easier and cheaper for Valve to make a deal with the NYAG, 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.

"Ultimately, a court will decide whose position — ours or NYAG's — is correct. In the meantime, we wanted to make sure you were aware of the potential impact to users in New York and elsewhere."

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

A secret website address hidden within Resident Evil Requiem looks to have been snatched up first by a fan of Valve founder Gabe Newell.

Peer closely into the screens of Leon's Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance computers and you'll see the following URL listed amid a string of code: NEWDAWN-capcom.com. But rather than an official website owned by Resident Evil's publisher, the website now redirects to a holding page owned by Gabe Follower, a content creator and fan of Valve.

According to domain ownership data seen by IGN, the website address was only claimed and registered this week, on March 9. Ownership has been secured for one year, meaning that any plans Capcom had for the site may need to wait, or be changed.

Among the gibberish words on the BSAA's computer in RE9, there's a domain called “NEWDAWN-capcom . com” i tried searching it, but nothing came up. The only relation to “NEWDAWN” i could think of are “Through the Darkness” lyrics & Wesker's quotes in RE4R/RE5. #REBHFun pic.twitter.com/SRdn9rKZZn

Interestingly, March 9 is the same date that the website address was spotted and shared on social media by RacconSurvivor, a fan who cleverly used a weapon scope to peer closer at the BSAA computer screen and sift through its gibberish code.

Did Gabe Follower see this tweet and promptly snap up the domain? We've asked what happened here — and contacted Capcom to see what its own plans are now.

Of course, the existence of a website address with "Capcom" in the name appears to be a deliberate tease within Requiem for something promotional (or, alternatively, Capcom is now canon within the Resident Evil universe). Was the publisher planning to use it for its upcoming Resident Evil Requiem DLC? We may now never know. Capcom could now choose to edit the website address in-game, or ultimately pretend the whole thing never existed.

In the meantime, fans are trying to work out what "New Dawn" might refer to. As Automaton notes, the initials "ND" are featured on Leon's car, which features the licence plate "ND=9642." And yes, those are the numbers for the Resident Evil games that Leon S. Kennedy has appeared in — Resident Evil 9 (Requiem), 6 (as one of a few playable protagonists), 4 and 2. Mysterious.

For now, if you're still playing, IGN's Resident Evil: Requiem guide will help you every step of the way through RE9. Take note of these key tips and tricks before you get started, and focus on finding these important items early. Plus, our comprehensive walkthrough will make sure you don't miss a single Bobblehead or file as you try to survive from the Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center all the way to Raccoon City.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

Pokémon Pokopia has launched big on Nintendo Switch 2, and sold 2.2 million copies over its release weekend.

Across four days, the new Pokémon life simulation game shifted 1 million copies in Japan alone, despite supply constraints for its physical version being reported in several countries.

Indeed, such has been the game's popularity that Amazon recently raised the price of its boxed copy by $10, up to $80. Nintendo shareholders have also reacted positively to the game's performance, sending the company's stock price shooting upwards.

While 2.2 million copies is less than the 5 million already sold by Resident Evil Requiem, it's important to remember that this game is an exclusive for Switch 2 — a console which still has a relatively modest userbase.

Just over 17 million Switch 2 consoles have been sold so far, meaning just shy of one in every eight owners also now has a copy of Pokémon Pokopia. The game has already beaten the sales to date of Kirby Air Riders (1.76 million) and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond (less than 1 million on Switch 2).

The sales even compare quite favourably with those for Pokémon Legends: Z-A, the highly-anticipated franchise title which introduced a new menagerie of Mega Pokémon. That has sold 3.89 million copies to date on Switch 2 since its launch last year (though was also available on Switch)

With a big launch and a very positive reception from both players and critics alike, Pokopia looks like a new evergreen hit for Nintendo as more players take the leap to Switch 2. Could it eventually become the best-selling Pokémon spinoff of all time? It seems possible. N64 classic Pokémon Stadium currently holds that title with 5.4 million sales, though the combined sales of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Red and Blue are slightly higher, at 5.8 million.

Looking to join in the fun for yourself? IGN's Pokémon Pokopia review returned a 9/10 score, and dubbed the game as "an enjoyable building and town simulator that capitalizes on the charming personalities of its monsters in a way that appeals to both the creative and collector alike."

If you're already playing, be sure to check out our list of all the Pokémon in Pokopia, and take a look at our Things to Do First in Pokopia guide to make the most of your first few days. To help you get started, we've also got a list of 17 things that Pokopia doesn't tell you, plus How to Raise the Environment Level and How to Raise Pokémon Comfort Level.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social