"Valve does not get anywhere near enough criticism about" gambling in its video games, says DayZ creator after $6 billion Counter-Strike 2 market crashes
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Anna Koselke
2025-10-28
Valve is under fire from all angles following the new Counter-Strike 2 update, which left the community in shambles over skin prices and the entirety of Steam's marketplace crashing, as even developers speak up against its reliance on gambling in video games.
Speaking in a recent interview with Eurogamer, DayZ creator Dean Hall comments on the use of gambling-related monetization in games – specifically on Valve's part. "It's something I think Valve does not get anywhere near enough criticism about," admits Hall.
He's not all that wrong… mere days ago, a Counter-Strike 2 patch altering the value of its virtual glove and knife skins caused absolute havoc in the $6 billion market.
Counter-Strike 2 community left in shambles along with Steam marketplace after Valve's new "Trade Up" update turns $10 skins into $1,000 skins and vice versa: "This update has made some collectors very rich"
New Counter-Strike 2 cases are free to open, but keeping skins will cost you – and the FPS community isn't thrilled: "Valve will literally reinvent the gambling industry before adding a random fun game mode"
Valve marches over to its desk to remove a Counter-Strike 2 map after just 2 days, seemingly over a "gamer word" hidden in a file
A whopping $3 billion or so was lost to the changes, causing fans who had invested money over time in the market and those who thought they struck gold with previously valuable skins to panic – understandably so.
This all came as a result of the gambling system Valve is now infamous for with Counter-Strike 2, and Hall isn't a fan. "I'm honestly disgusted with gambling mechanics in video games at all – they have absolutely no place."
His sentiment here certainly makes sense. He continues, posing a "challenge" of sorts to companies like Valve: "My challenge to game developers is that if they think these things are not a problem, they make the data available to universities that are crying out to study this stuff."
It would definitely be interesting to see. A whopping 12 years have passed since Valve introduced weapon skin cases in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive's "Arms Deal" update.
Following the introduction of said cases, it only took a year or so for third-party sites to host players' sales of skins for real-life money rather than Steam currency – an issue that has only grown tenfold since 2013. With gloves, guns, and knives that can fetch thousands of dollars, it's hard to think there's any alternative at this point, but I'll personally be keeping my fingers crossed for a miraculous change in Valve's direction there.
"If I had stayed with Valve, I would have been able to retire by now": OG Counter-Strike co-creator 'Gooseman' "kind of regrets leaving Valve, says he "made some poor business decisions" but grew as a dev
vortex_bun
Nov 28, 10:19 PM
I danced it.
gothic_frog
Oct 28, 03:14 PM
unusually slow. I colored it. ;) Yeah, this game is awesome, 10/10.
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