The American digital distribution and video game developer company, Valve, is located in Bellevue, Washington. The company had created some of the most amazing games like Counter-Strike, Half-Life, Day of Defeat, Portal, Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress, and Dota 2. Their software distribution platform Steam is also world-famous.
Foundation and Work
On 24th August 1996, Microsoft employees, Mike Harrington and Gabe Newell founded this company. They started the company by the name Valve L.L.C. which is based in Kirkland, Washington on the Eastside of Seattle. The company moved to Bellevue, Washington after the incorporation in 2003’s April. Their latest office is on Lincoln Square in Bellevue, which is double if compared to the size of the previous office.
Their major breakthrough game was Half-Life. Mike and Gabe started working on the game after they got the license to the Quake engine. It was not easy to get, but they got it with the help of a friend from id Software named Michael Abrash in 1996. They finally launched the game in 1998. The expansion packs of Half-Life are created by Gearbox Software which are Half-Life: Blue Shift, Half-Life: Opposing Force, and home console versions for play station 2, Half-Life: Decay.
The huge success of Half-Life made the creators think about its spin-offs and sequels like Half-Life 2. There are six game series which are created and developed by Valve Counter-Strike, Half-Life, Day of Defeat, Portal, Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress. Their software distribution platform is Steam.
Valve has been attacked three times by the hackers 2003, 2011 and 2014, but they never lost a huge amount of data as their systems are very compact. There are some games which Valve worked on but can’t release due to various reasons like Prospero, a game which is fairy themed game. Other games are Stars of Blood and The Crossing.
Awards & Achievements
The scope and commercial value of Valve had improved a lot by time. They made an announcement on 10th January 2008 that the acquisition of the studio Turtle Rock Studios will be renamed as Valve South. Valve won the March Mayhem tournament run by The Escapist Magazine. They got the award for the best developer of 2010. They defeated some greats during their run like in the semifinals they defeated Zynga and in the final BioWare to complete their victory.
Net Worth of Valve
The company earned a lot of money by developing great games which are famous worldwide, and the software distribution platform Steam has too added wealth to the funds of the company. As of December 2024, the estimated net worth of Valve is around $4 billion.
Five publishers of Valve are accused of anti-competitive practices. They use Steam product keys and geo-blocking through the Steam storefront to prevent access of the software to the people of several countries, and this is against the European Union’s initiative of Digital Single Market. The names of those companies are ZeniMax Media, Koch Media, Focus Home Interactive, Capcom, and Bandai Namco Entertainment.
What is that last paragraph? It’s so out of place and deserves its own article (and a hyperlink to that article).
How does this make sence, in 2019 valve was worth around 10 billion dollars?