Valve Sues Law Firm Zaiger Over Alleged Mass Arbitration Extortion Scheme

The US Chamber of Commerce, a staunch opponent of both mass arbitration and litigation funding, could hardly have imagined a more dramatic demonstration of the alleged dangers of both than a lawsuit filed by game developer Valve.

Valve Takes Legal Action Against Zaiger

Valve claims that a small law firm, Zaiger, is seeking to "extort" a settlement by threatening to file arbitration proceedings alleging antitrust violations on behalf of more than 50,000 Steam customers, Reuters reported. The company is suing Zaiger and the litigation funder who reportedly gave seed money for the plaintiffs' firm to conduct a social media advertising campaign to sign Steam consumers as clients.

Valve's complaint, which was first filed in state court in King County, Washington, but was removed to federal court in Seattle on November 27, does not name the funder, but Valve believes Zaiger was funded by its mainstay client, Black Diamond Capital Management.

Valve says that the defendants violated its contracts with Steam users and manipulated the arbitration process by signing up tens of thousands of clients with no intention of arbitrating their claims in order to force Valve to settle.

Of fact, many other mass arbitration targets have complained about plaintiffs' tactics. The company got a slide presentation detailing Zaiger's plans to start a mass arbitration campaign, as well as a sworn affidavit from a former Zaiger lawyer, William Bucher, who claims to have been heavily involved in the firm's pitch to its litigation financier.

Bucher, a former associate at Debevoise & Plimpton and Fenwick & West, was only at Zaiger for six months. He and the firm are now embroiled in their own contentious legal battle in the New York State Supreme Court over who gets to represent the tens of thousands of Steam customers Zaiger signed up for during Bucher's brief stint.

Valve Released Official Steam Link PC VR Streaming App On Quest

On Meta Quest, Valve released a free official Steam Link app last week, UploadVR reported. The app, which is available on the official Quest Store and has been certified by Meta, allows you to play SteamVR titles like "Half-Life: Alyx" on your Quest 2, Quest Pro, or Quest 3 by streaming from your gaming PC over your home Wi-Fi network. You can even play non-VR Steam games on a massive virtual screen.

The headset's face and eye tracking are carried through to VRChat over OSC on Quest Pro, and eye tracking is also utilized to prioritize video streaming encoding to where you're currently looking.

Quest headsets can already stream wireless PC VR. Air Link has been a built-in function of Quest since 2021, although it was previously possible via unofficial third-party apps like Guy Godin's Virtual Desktop when the original Oculus Quest launched in 2019. Godin's software is often updated with new features, making it the favorite choice for many PC VR users, so we're excited to compare the streaming quality of Steam Link.

However, unlike Meta's Air Link, which requires you to install and run the abandoned Oculus PC software, and Virtual Desktop, which requires you to install and run the Virtual Desktop PC streamer, Valve's approach merely requires you to have Steam and SteamVR installed on your PC. It provides a free, direct, unmediated connection to SteamVR.

Photo: DasMxD/YouTube Screenshot