Dean Hall, the creator of DayZ and Icarus, has openly criticized Valve's monetization methods. In an interview, Hall stated that the company "completely ignores the criticism it deserves."
"I'm really sick of these things in video games, they shouldn't exist, period," he said.
The criticism concerns loot boxes in Counter-Strike 2, where players receive skins and items for exchange or sale, which has created a huge market. Hall noted that even after investigations in several countries, Valve found a way to circumvent the rules: instead of paying for the box, the player pays for its contents. In his opinion, this is just a legal trick.
He challenged other studios:
"If you don't think it's a problem, share the data with universities that are studying the issue."
Hall also spoke about his game Icarus, which was initially supposed to be free but switched to paid DLC, like Paradox.
"I don't like this model, but we needed to survive. Many creators are in the same situation—we don't like these monetization methods, but we have to."
