Valve Corporation

Infobox Company
company_name=Valve Corporation
company_logo=
company_type=Private
foundation=Kirkland, Washington, USA (1996)
founder=Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington
location=Bellevue, Washington, USA
key_people=Gabe Newell, co-founder and managing director
revenue=profit$70million USD (2007)
num_employees=150 [citation|title=http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=7197417&postcount=20]
industry=Computer software, Interactive entertainment
products="Half-Life" series
"Counter-Strike" series
"Day of Defeat" series
"Team Fortress" series
Source
Steam
Valve Anti-Cheat
homepage= [http://www.valvesoftware.com/ www.valvesoftware.com]

Valve Corporation is an American video game development company based in Bellevue, Washington, USA that was founded in 1996, and made famous by its first product, "Half-Life", which was released in November 1998.

History

Valve was originally an L.L.C., based in Kirkland, Washington. After the company became a corporation in 2003 it moved away from its original location to Bellevue, Washington. The city of Bellevue, Washington was also where their original publisher, Sierra On-Line, Inc., was based.

"Half-Life"'s success was followed by developing mods, spin-offs, and sequels including "Half-Life 2". Valve bases all of its games off of its Source engine, with much of its success coming from mods and sequels. It has produced six series of games; "Half-Life", "Team Fortress", "Portal", "Counter-Strike", "Left 4 Dead", and "Day of Defeat". Valve is notable for being extremely supportive of their modding community, "Counter-Strike", "Team Fortress", and "Day of Defeat" all being mods that Valve purchased and developed into full games.

On January 10 2008, Valve Corporation announced that they had acquired Turtle Rock Studios, adding the Californian technology company to its portfolio.cite news|first=|last=|coauthors=|title=Valve Acquires Turtle Rock Studios|date=2008-01-10|publisher=Valve Corporation|url=http://store.steampowered.com/news/1401/|work =|pages=|accessdate=2008-01-10|language=]

"Half-Life"

Long-time Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington founded Valve on August 24, 1996. [ [http://storefront.steampowered.com/Steam/Marketing/message/1171/ Steam Message ] ] [ [http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/decisions/html/2005/d2005-0038.html Valve Corporation v. ValveNET, Inc., ValveNET, Inc., Charles Morrin] WIPO Domain Name Decision: Case No. D2005-0038] After securing a license to the "Quake" engine (through the help of friend Michael Abrash of id Software) in late 1996, they commenced working on "Half-Life". Originally planned for release in late 1997, "Half-Life" launched on November 19 1998. Valve acquired TF Software PTY Ltd. in May 1998, the makers of the "Team Fortress" mod for "Quake" with the intent to create a standalone "Team Fortress" game. The "Team Fortress Classic" mod, essentially a port of the original "Team Fortress" mod for "Quake", was released for "Half-Life" in 1999. "Team Fortress 2" was released October 10 2007, bundled with "" and "Portal" in the package "The Orange Box".

Valve continued work on "Half-Life", releasing several extensions to the game and collaborating with other developers to port it to other platforms. They also took on the development of the highly popular "Counter-Strike" and "Day of Defeat" "Half-Life" mods.

team

Valve announced its Steam content delivery system in 2002. At the time, it looked to be a method of streamlining the patch process common in online computer games. Steam was later revealed as a replacement for much of the framework of WON and "Half-Life" multiplayer and also as a distribution system for entire games.

Between 2002 and 2005, Valve was involved in a complex legal showdown with its publisher, Vivendi Universal (under Vivendi's brand Sierra Entertainment). It officially began on August 14 2002 when Valve sued Sierra for copyright infringement, alleging that the publisher illegally distributed copies of their games to Internet cafes. They later added claims of breach of contract, accusing their publisher of withholding royalties and delaying the release of "" until after the holiday season.

Vivendi fought back, saying that Gabe Newell and marketing director Doug Lombardi had misrepresented Valve's position in meetings with the publisher. Vivendi later countersued, claiming that Valve's Steam content distribution system attempted to circumvent their publishing agreement. VUG sought intellectual property rights to "Half-Life" and a ruling preventing Valve from using Steam to distribute "Half-Life 2".

On November 29 2004, Judge Thomas S. Zilly of U.S. Federal District Court in Seattle, WA ruled in favor of Valve Corporation. Specifically, the ruling stated that Vivendi Universal and its affiliates (including Sierra) were not authorized to distribute Valve games, either directly or indirectly, through cyber cafés to end users for pay-to-play activities pursuant to the parties' current publishing agreement. In addition, Judge Zilly ruled that Valve could recover copyright damages for infringements without regard to the publishing agreement's limitation of liability clause. [ [http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/09/20/news_6107712.html Valve vs. Vivendi Universal dogfight heats up in US District Court - PC News at GameSpot ] ] Valve posted on the Steam website that the two companies had come to a settlement in court on April 29 2005. [ [http://store.steampowered.com/news/413/ Steam - News ] ] Electronic Arts announced on July 18 2005 they would be teaming up with Valve in a multi-year deal to distribute their games, replacing Vivendi Universal from then onwards. [ [http://www.eagames.com/redesign/editorial.jsp?src=valve_071805 EA and Valve Team Up to Deliver Half Life to Gamers Worldwide ] ]

Through Steam, Valve is extremely supportive of their games. They regularly release updates, and, in the case of "Team Fortress 2", have added 132 achievements, ten new maps, nine new weapons and two new gamemodes for free.

As of October 1 2008, over 450 PC games are available on Steamcite web |url=http://www.valvesoftware.com/news.php?id=1574|title=Steamworks Development Kit Available Now|date=2008-05-01|accessdate=2008-06-08|work=Steam news] , and there are approximately 15 million users.cite web |url=http://store.steampowered.com/news/1431/|title=Steam Reaches 15 Million Accounts|date=2008-02-07|accessdate=2008-02-07|work=Steam news]

ee also

*Steam (content delivery)
*Valve Anti-Cheat
*List of "Half-Life" mods
*List of "Half-Life 2" mods
*PowerPlay (technology)
*Source (game engine)

References

External links

* [http://www.valvesoftware.com/ Official Homepage of Valve Corporation]
* [http://www.steampowered.com Official Steam Site]
* [http://www.mobygames.com/company/valve-corporation/history Valve Corporation History]