The FBI has opened an official investigation into several games on Steamtargeting a group of games containing malware that has plagued the online market. The Valve-powered storefront has stood as one of the largest gaming platforms since its debut in 2004, with more than 100,000 different games available for purchase. Steam offers everything from AAA games from the biggest studios to a wide range of indie games, with Valve often helping to promote and run games from smaller developers. However, Steam's games have been host to many scandals in its more than two decades.
Steam's widespread popularity has invited a host of bad actors that have plagued the storefront throughout its history. The open nature of the Steam Workshop has been a major source of malicious attacks on unsuspecting players, with fans discovering malware in specific mods for Schedule 1. Valve has also regularly removed games that want to trick users, often masquerading as legitimate game releases while trying to steal information from players. Now the FBI is taking matters into their own hands with a full-scale investigation into several Steam games.
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The FBI is investigating some Steam games for malware
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation officially announced a new inspection of seven different Steam games. The FBI notes that seven games fall under scrutiny for containing malware, naming names BlockBlasters, Chemistry, Dashverse/DashFPS, Lampy, Lunar, PirateFiand Tokenova as part of the investigation. The agency is looking to identify victims of the Steam malware attack, with those users potentially eligible for “certain services, restitution and rights” under US federal and state laws. The official documents for the investigation also suggest that the seven games cited in the official documents are likely to be managed by the same person or group.
Rearrange the cases in the correct US release order.
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Rearrange the cases in the correct US release order.
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The statement from the FBI provides more information about the details behind the targeted Steam games. The agency reveals that the attacks mainly affected users from May 2024 to January 2026, with BlockBlasters previously came under fire for stealing money from a popular Twitch streamer. The FBI is asking victims of the malware scam to provide information about their involvement in the games, including how they discovered the games, who told them about the games and how much money was stolen. The FBI also confirmed that the agency may ask some affected victims to provide additional information as part of its investigation.
The FBI investigation isn't the only major legal controversy linked to Steam in the past month, with Valve facing a lawsuit from the state of New York. Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit against the Steam creator in late February, citing the platform's loot boxes as a driving factor behind the legal action. James argued that loot boxes in games like Dota 2 and Team Fortress 2 constitutes illegal gaming marketed to children, seeks to triple the value of Valve's loot box revenue in fines. Valve has also since received lawsuits from both the state of Washington and the UK-based Performing Right Society, over loot boxes and copyright infringement, respectively.
Steam's ongoing legal troubles have created some major controversy as the platform is set to have a big year. Valve is preparing for the launch of Steam Machine as a completely new home console, which will be close to PS5 and Xbox Series X in performance. The company will also debut some new peripherals in 2026, with both the Steam Frame VR headset and a new version of the Steam Controller scheduled to launch throughout the year. Valve can only hope that its latest legal controversies won't hinder a pivotal year for Steam.
