ALBAWBA - Following its lawsuit against Leigh Rothschild in February 2026, Valve is now facing another lawsuit by the UK's PRS for Music, with claims that the video game giant doesn't have the license for music in games sold or distributed via Steam.
According to IGN, PRS for Music claims that Valve "never obtained a licence for its use of the rights managed by PRS on behalf of its members, comprising songwriters, composers, and music publishers," since Steam's release in 2003.
UK's PRS sues Valve over music rights on Steam
The UK music copyright collective added in a press release, "The litigation will progress unless Valve Corporation engages positively with discussions and takes the necessary license to cover the use of PRS repertoire, both retrospectively and moving forward."
The statement also mentions "high-profile" titles such as Rockstar's GTA franchise, Microsoft's Forza Horizon series, and EA's FIFA FC.
This raised eyebrows among the gaming community as none of the titles mentioned above are developed or published by Valve, which is known for games such as Dota 2, Counter-Strike 2, Half-Life, and Portal.
The argument is that competitors such as Xbox use a "General Entertainment Online Licence" for their storefronts, a license also used by popular streaming platforms such as Netflix and Disney+, as per PRS's official website.
PRS also adds that it previously made a deal with Sony to cover music usage in games and related content across Europe.
Valve recently won a lawsuit against Leigh Rothschild in February 2026 after he accused the video game giant of infringing on patents related to cloud streaming on Steam. The jury agreed that Rothschild acted in bad faith and violated Washington state's anti-patent troll protection act.
Many users in the gaming community believe that Valve is being deliberately targeted by several companies.
A social media user wrote on X (formerly Twitter), "There’s no way all of this sh*t against Valve isn’t coordinated, I refuse to believe it. What the fuck is going on, it’s like someone flipped a switch and the wolves are suddenly out for blood."
