Valve Corporation

Coordinates: 47°36′51″N 122°11′38″W / 47.614028°N 122.194015°W

Valve Corporation
Private
Industry Video games
Digital distribution
Founded August 24, 1996
Kirkland, Washington, U.S.
Founder Gabe Newell
Mike Harrington
Headquarters Bellevue, Washington, U.S.
Area served
 Worldwide
Key people
 Gabe Newell
(Managing director)
Products

Video games:
Counter-Strike series
Dota 2
Day of Defeat series
Half-Life series
Left 4 Dead series
Portal series
Team Fortress series

Other:
Source game engine
Steam distribution platform
Valve Anti-Cheat
VOGL
Total equity US$2.5 billion (2012, estimated)[1]
Number of employees
 ~330 (2013)[2]
Subsidiaries Valve S.a.r.l., Luxembourg
Website www.valvesoftware.com

Valve Corporation (formerly Valve Software, commonly referred to as Valve) is an American video game development and digital distribution company headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, United States. Its European-based office opened in 2012 in Luxembourg. Founded in 1996 by former Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington, Valve developed critically acclaimed video game series Half-Life, Portal, and Left 4 Dead. It has also developed and maintains the Source engine for which most of its games run on, and the software distribution platform Steam, which has led to the Steam Machine, a line of pre-built gaming computers running SteamOS.

History

Founding and Incorporation

Valve was founded by longtime Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington on August 24, 1996,[3][4] as an L.L.C. based in Kirkland, Washington. After incorporation in April 2003,[5] it moved from its original location to Bellevue, Washington, the same city in which their original publisher, Sierra On-Line, Inc., was based.

Half-Life

Main article: Half-Life

After securing a license to the Quake engine (through the help of friend Michael Abrash of id Software) in late 1996, Newell and Harrington began working on Half-Life. Originally planned for release in late 1997, Half-Life launched on November 19, 1998. Valve acquired TF Software PTY Ltd, the makers of the Team Fortress mod for Quake, in May 1998 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. Gearbox contributed much after the release of Half-Life. Gearbox Software is responsible for the Half-Life expansion packs, Half-Life: Opposing Force and Half-Life: Blue Shift, along with the home console versions of Half-Life for the Sega Dreamcast and Sony PlayStation 2 which included a third expansion pack called Half-Life: Decay, that enabled two-player split-screen co-op.

Source Engine

Main article: Source (game engine)

After the success of Half-Life, the team led by Keiran Wright worked on mods, spin-offs, and sequels, including Half-Life 2. All current Valve games are built on its Source engine. The company has developed six game series: Half-Life, Team Fortress, Portal, Counter-Strike, Left 4 Dead and Day of Defeat. Valve is noted for its support of its games' modding community: most prominently, Counter-Strike, Team Fortress, and Day of Defeat. Valve has branched out with this tradition to continue developing Dota 2 as the standalone sequel to the Warcraft III mod.[6] Each of these games began as a third-party mod that Valve purchased and developed into a full game. They also distribute community mods on Steam.[7] Valve announced the Source 2 engine on March 3, 2015.[8]

Acquisitions and awards

Valve has grown both in scope and commercial value. On January 10, 2008, Valve Corporation announced the acquisition of Turtle Rock Studios.[9] On April 8, 2010, Valve won The Escapist Magazine's March Mayhem tournament for the best developer of 2010,[10] beating out Zynga in the semi-finals and BioWare in the final.

In 2012, the company acquired Star Filled Studios, a two-man gaming company to open a San Francisco office.[11] In August 2013, however, Valve ended the operation when it was decided that there was little benefit coming from the arrangement.[12]

Network intrusions

Valve's internal network has been infiltrated by hackers twice, once in 2003 where content of yet to be released Half-Life 2 was leaked onto the internet,[13] and again in 2011 when the Steam customer databases and official forums were compromised.[14][15]

Legal disputes

Valve v. Vivendi

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 Counter-Strike: Condition Zero 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. Vivendi 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 Samuel Zilly of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington 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' 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.[16] Valve posted on the Steam website that the two companies had come to a settlement in court on April 29, 2005.[17] 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.[18] As a result of the trial, the arbitrator also awarded Valve $2,391,932.

Valve Corporation v. Activision Blizzard, Inc.

In April 2009, Valve sued Activision Blizzard, which acquired Sierra Entertainment after a merger with its parent company, Vivendi Universal Games. Activision had allegedly refused to honor the Valve v. Vivendi arbitration agreement. Activision had only paid Valve $1,967,796 of the $2,391,932 award, refusing to pay the remaining $424,136 claiming it had overpaid that sum in the past years.[19][20]

Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. v. Valve Corporation

Shortly after Valve filed its trademark for "Dota" to secure the franchising rights for Dota 2, DotA-Allstars, LLC, run by former contributors to the games's predecessor, Defense of the Ancients, filed an opposing trademark in August 2010.[21] DotA All-Stars, LLC was sold to Blizzard Entertainment, the developer of DotA's platform Warcraft III and its world editor, in 2011. After the opposition was overruled in Valve's favor, Blizzard itself filed an opposition against Valve in November 2011, citing their license agreement with developers, as well as their ownership of DotA-Allstars, LLC.[22] On May 11, 2012, Blizzard and Valve announced that the dispute had been settled. Valve retained the rights to the term "Dota" commercially, while Blizzard reserved the right for fans to use the trademark non-commercially, and changed the name of their StarCraft II map, Blizzard DOTA, to "Blizzard All-Stars".[23] Blizzard All-Stars was adapted into a standalone game and renamed "Heroes of the Storm" on October 17, 2013.[24]

Games

Cancelled games

Incomplete games include a fairy RPG,[25] Prospero[26] and Stars of Blood.[27][28]

It was also working with Arkane Studios on Return to Ravenholm (a.k.a. Half-Life 2: Episode Four)[29][30] and The Crossing.[31]

Other ongoing projects

Steam

Main article: Steam (software)
Gabe Newell (foreground) and Doug Lombardi (background), 2007

Valve announced its games platform Steam in 2002. At the time it looked merely to be a method of streamlining the patch process common in online video games, but was later revealed as a replacement for much of the framework of the World Opponent Network service and also as a distribution/digital rights management system for entire games.

Valve has shown support for some of their games. For example, Valve has offered considerable updates for Team Fortress 2; including adding new maps, new game modes, additional weapons, new achievements, and additional game play mechanics, as well adding a store which sells in-game items. All such updates, with the exception of the aforementioned in-game items, are mandatory, and provided free of charge.

As of July 2014, there are over 3,400 games available on Steam, and in January 2014 Valve announced that it had surpassed 75 million active user accounts.[32]

On August 1, 2012, Valve Corporation announced revisions to the Steam Subscriber Agreement (SSA) to prohibit class action lawsuits by users against the service provider.

Alongside these changes to the SSA, the company also declared publicly the incorporation of Valve S.a.r.l., a subsidiary based in Luxembourg.[33][34] Valve set up a physical office in Luxembourg Kirchberg, according to Valve's project manager Mike Dunkle, the location was chosen for eCommerce capabilities and infrastructure, talent acquisition, tax advantages and its central geographic locations – most major partners are accessible with 50% within driving distance.[35]

Valve S.A.R.L is used to sell games to United Kingdom–based users to avoid paying the full 20% VAT.[36] The tax loophole was expected to be closed on January 1, 2015.[37]

Steam Machine

Newell has been critical of the direction that Microsoft has taken with the Windows operating system in making it a closed architecture similar to Apple's products, and has stated that he believes that with changes made in Windows 8 are "a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space".[38] Newell identified the open-source Linux platform as an ideal platform for Steam, noting that the only thing holding back its adoption is the lack of games.[38]

In 2012, Valve announced that they were working on a console/PC hybrid for the living room which was unofficially dubbed by media as the "Steam Box".[39][40] A precursor to such a unit is SteamOS, a freely available Linux-based operating system that builds upon the Steam client functionality that includes media services, live streaming across home networks, game sharing within families, and parental controls. SteamOS was officially announced in September 2013 as the first of several announcements related to the Steam Machine platform[41] as well as their unique game controller.[3] In early Summer 2014, Valve announced that the company's own SteamOS-powered Steam Machine would be delayed until 2015 due to problems with the game controller.[42]

Pipeline

In July 2013, Valve officially announced Pipeline, an intern project consisting of ten high school students working together to learn how to create video game content.[43] Pipeline serves a dual purpose:

  1. to discuss and answer questions that teenagers often ask about the video game industry[44]
  2. to see if it is possible to train a group of teenagers with minimal work experience to work for a company like Valve[44]

The latter purpose breaks Valve's tradition of employing experienced developers, as the company is not very good at "teaching people straight out of school".[44][45]

J. J. Abrams collaboration

At the 2013 D.I.C.E. Summit, Gabe Newell confirmed that he and director J. J. Abrams were collaborating to produce a Half-Life or Portal film, as well as a possible new game.[46]

VR Headset

In March 2015, Valve and HTC announced a joint project to develop Vive, a head-mounted virtual reality display.[47] The companies are working with Google, Lions Gate, and HBO to develop content for the device.[48]

Organizational structure

Valve is run as a flat organization without bosses, and uses open allocation (employees can move between teams at will).[45][49][50] Yanis Varoufakis, Greece's Finance Minister and former economic consultant for Valve, attempted to place Valve's organization in the context of theories of the firm and broader economic thinking.[51][52][53] Former employee Jeri Ellsworth has, however, criticized the structure as "a lot like high school", where while the structure is flat, certain people within the company nevertheless have more say in decisions than others.[54]

"Valve Time"

"Valve Time" is an industry term used jokingly with game releases from Valve, used to acknowledge the difference between the promised date for released content stated by Valve and to the actual release date; "Valve Time" includes predominant delays but also includes some content that was released earlier than expected. Valve itself has fully acknowledged the term, including tracking known discrepancies between ideal and actual releases on their public development wiki[55] and using it in announcements about such delays.[56][57] Valve ascribes delays to their mentality of team-driven initiatives over corporate deadlines to make sure they provide a high-quality product to their customers.[58]

Valve's former business development chief Jason Holtman stated that the company sees themselves as an "oddity" in an industry that looks towards punctual delivery of products; instead, Valve "[tries] as hard as we can to make the best thing possible in the right time frame and get people content they want to consume. And if that takes longer, that's fine".[59] For that, Valve takes the concept of "Valve Time" as a compliment, and that "having customers consistently looking at our property or something you've done and saying, can you give me more" is evidence that they are making the right decisions with their game releases, according to Holtman.[59] The company does try to avoid unintentional delays of their projects,[60] and believes that the earlier occurrences of "Valve Time" delays, primarily from Half-Life development, has helped them improve their release schedules.[58]

References

  1. ↑ Wingfield, Nick (8 September 2012). "Game Maker Without a Rule Book". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 September 2012.
  2. ↑ Dudley, Brier (2013-11-04). "A glimpse of Valve’s Steam Machine, controller design and hardware plans". Seattle Times. Retrieved 2013-11-04.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Steam Message". Steam. Valve Corporation. 2007-08-24. Retrieved 2008-11-08. it was exactly eleven years ago that Valve was born
  4. ↑ Towns, William R. (2005-03-09). "Valve Corporation v. ValveNET, Inc., ValveNET, Inc., Charles Morrin Case No. D2005-0038". WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center. World Intellectual Property Organization. Retrieved 2008-11-08.
  5. ↑ "Washington Secretary of State". Retrieved 2010-04-25.
  6. ↑ Biessener, Adam (2010-10-13). "Valve's New Game Announced, Detailed: Dota 2". Game Informer. Retrieved 2012-10-08.
  7. ↑ "Source Filmmaker". Source Filmmaker. Retrieved 31 March 2013.
  8. ↑ Langley, Hugh (March 3, 2015). "Valve just announced its plans for Steam Machines... and Source 2". Tech Radar. Retrieved March 3, 2015.
  9. ↑ "Valve Acquires Turtle Rock Studios" (Press release). Valve Corporation. 2008-01-10. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
  10. ↑ Palumbo, Jeff (2010-04-08). "Valve Becomes the New March Mayhem: Developer's Showdown Champion". escapistmagazine.com. Retrieved 2010-04-24.
  11. ↑ Hing, David (2012-12-17). "Valve acquires or hires Star Filled Studios". bit-gamer.net. Bit-tech.net. Retrieved 2013-08-31.
  12. ↑ Reilly, Luke (August 7, 2013). "Valve’s San Francisco Remote Office Shut Down". IGN.
  13. ↑ "Playable Version of Half-Life 2 Stolen". CNN Money. 2003-10-07. Retrieved February 14, 2007.
  14. ↑ Johnson, Casey (2011-11-10). "Valve confirms Steam hack: credit cards, personal info may be stolen". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2011-11-10.
  15. ↑ Leyden, John (2011-11-09). "Steam games forum down amid hack fears". The Register. Retrieved 2011-11-10.
  16. ↑ Feldman, Curt (2004-09-20). "Valve vs. Vivendi Universal dogfight heats up in US District Court". GameSpot. CNET Networks, Inc. Retrieved 2008-11-08.
  17. ↑ Steam "Valve and Vivendi Universal Games Settle Lawsuit" (Press release). Valve Corporation. 2005-04-29. Retrieved 2008-11-08.
  18. ↑ "EA and Valve Team Up to Deliver Half Life to Gamers Worldwide". Electronic Arts Inc. 2005-07-18. Retrieved 2008-11-08.
  19. ↑ "It's Ugly: Valve Sues Activision, Activision Threatens to Sue Valve". gamepolitics.com. 2009-04-30. Retrieved 2009-05-01. Against that backdrop, Activision cut Valve a check last week for $1,967,796—the amount handed down by the arbitrator less the disputed $424K. According to Valve's suit, Activision said that it wouldn't pay the rest and if Valve went to court Activision would countersue. Valve has apparently called Activision's bluff and the parties are now once again at odds.
  20. ↑ "Valve Corporation v. Activision Blizzard, Inc.". United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. July 30, 2010.
  21. ↑ Augustine, Josh (2010-08-17). "Riot Games’ dev counter-files "DotA" trademark". PC Gamer. Retrieved 2011-08-19.
  22. ↑ Plunkett, Luke (2012-02-10). "Blizzard and Valve go to War Over DOTA Name". Kotaku.
  23. ↑ Reilly, Jim (2012-05-11). "Valve, Blizzard Reach DOTA Trademark Agreement". Game Informer.
  24. ↑ Narcisse, Evan (October 17, 2013). "Blizzard’s Diablo/Starcraft/WoW Crossover Has a New Name". Kotaku.
  25. ↑ "Valve were making a fairy RPG before Left 4 Dead | Interviews, News". PC Gamer. Retrieved 2013-03-23.
  26. ↑ Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar. Prima Games. 2004. p. 10. ISBN 0-7615-4364-3.
  27. ↑ "Valve SOB Project Was Called 'Stars of Blood'". ValveTime.net. 11 November 2012.
  28. ↑ "Gabe Newell On Valve’s "SOB": "'Stars of Blood' Was An Internal Project That Never Saw The Light of Day"". LambdaGeneration. 12 November 2012.
  29. ↑ "Marc Laidlaw On The Cancelled Half-Life Spin-offs: Return To Ravenholm And "Episode Four"". LambdaGeneration. 13 January 2012. Archived from the original on 16 January 2012. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
  30. ↑ Savage, Phil (15 January 2013). "Half-Life 2: Episode 4 was being developed by Arkane; now cancelled". PC Gamer. Retrieved 8 July 2014.
  31. ↑ O'Conner, Alice (15 May 2009). "Arkane and Valve's 'The Crossing' on Hold". Shacknews. Retrieved 11 June 2013.
  32. ↑ "Steam has 75 million active users, Valve announces at Dev Days". Joystiq. 2014-01-15. Retrieved 2014-07-11.
  33. ↑ "Steam’s Sub Agreement Prohibits Class-Action Lawsuits". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. 2012-08-01. Retrieved 2012-08-03.
  34. ↑ "Updated Steam Subscriber Agreement". Valve Corporation. 2012-08-01. Retrieved 2012-08-03.
  35. ↑ Valve Software Latest Gaming Company to Set Up in Luxembourg. Chronicle.lu (2012-09-04). Retrieved on 2014-05-23.
  36. ↑ Karmali, Luke. (2014-03-25) Steam, Amazon and iTunes Prices Could Rise in UK. IGN. Retrieved on 2014-05-23.
  37. ↑ Chapple, Craig. (2014-03-25) UK closing tax loophole on Steam game downloads | Latest news from the game development industry | Develop. Develop-online.net. Retrieved on 2014-05-23.
  38. ↑ 38.0 38.1 Crabtree, Dan (July 25, 2012). "Gabe Newell: "Windows 8 Is Kind of a Catastrophe"". IGN. Retrieved September 24, 2013.
  39. ↑ Davies, Marsh (9 December 2012). "Valve confirms Steam Box – a "very controlled" PC for the living room". PC Gamer. Retrieved 21 April 2013.
  40. ↑ Newman, Jared (18 March 2013). "Valve’s Steam Box: The plot thickens for PC-based game consoles". PC World. Retrieved 21 April 2013.
  41. ↑ Kohler, Chris (2013-09-23). "Valve Continues Its War on Game Consoles With Steam Operating System". Wired. Retrieved 2013-09-23.
  42. ↑ Vaughn-Nichols, Steven J. (2014-05-28). "Valve Steam Machines delayed until 2015". ZDNet. Retrieved 2014-06-03.
  43. ↑ "Pipeline — About Us". Valve. Retrieved 13 September 2013.
  44. ↑ 44.0 44.1 44.2 "Pipeline — Home". pipeline.valvesoftware.com. Valve Corporation. Archived from the original on September 15, 2013. Retrieved August 31, 2013. Why is Valve doing this? There are two main reasons that Valve is creating Pipeline. The first is that we are frequently asked questions by teenagers about the videogame industry. "What is it like to work on videogames? What should I study? What colleges are best for preparing me? How do I get a job in videogames?" Pipeline will be a place where those questions can be discussed. The second is that Valve is running an experiment. Traditionally Valve has been a very good place for very experienced videogame developers, and not so good at teaching people straight out of school (the reasons for this and the tradeoffs are covered in the Valve employee handbook). Pipeline is an experiment to see if we can take a group of high school students with minimal work experience and train them in the skills and methods necessary to be successful at a company like Valve.
    What is the objective of the website itself? We want to establish a connection to the world of teenagers that are asking many questions about getting into the gaming industry. We look to answer many of these questions and are willing to reach out to the community and give them the information they need.
    Why Pipeline? The name 'Pipeline' was chosen for its industrial connection with names like Valve and Steam, as well as its definition's notion of connection, direction, outreach, and supply. Valve is often asked questions such as "how do I get from where I am now to working at a professional level in a video game company like Valve?" Naturally, like a pipeline, the journey is long, but the goal of this project is to act as a direct feed of knowledge from Valve to the community in order to help equip individuals ith the skills necessary to achieve their goals of getting into the video game industry. We will supply information on a variety of different fields prompted by public demand. Information will come in the form of interviews with professionals and resources on this website, displaying the variety of ways that you can achieve your goals.
  45. ↑ 45.0 45.1 "Valve Handbook for New Employees" (PDF). Valve Corporation. Retrieved 1 September 2013.
  46. ↑ "LambdaGeneration 2.0 - Coming Soon". Lambdageneration.com. Retrieved 2013-08-31.
  47. ↑ Good, Owen S. (2015-03-01). "Valve partnering with HTC to make virtual reality headsets". Polygon. Retrieved 2015-03-01.
  48. ↑ Graser, Marc (2015-03-01). "HTC, Valve to Launch Virtual Reality Headset Vive in 2015". Variety. Retrieved 2015-03-01.
  49. ↑ Suddath, Claire (April 25, 2012). "What Makes Valve Software the Best Office Ever?". Business Week.
  50. ↑ Suddath, Claire (April 27, 2012). "Why ThereAre No Bosses At Valve". Business Week.
  51. ↑ Petitte, Omri (13 February 2013). "Valve lays off several employees in hardware, mobile teams [Updated]". PCGamer.com. PCGamer. Retrieved 16 February 2013.
  52. ↑ Varoufakis, Yanis (3 August 2012). "Why Valve? Or, what do we need corporations for and how does Valve’s management structure fit into today’s corporate world?". Valve Economics. Retrieved 12 August 2012.
  53. ↑ Hern, Alex (August 3, 2012). "Valve Software: free marketeer's dream, or nightmare?". New Statesman.
  54. ↑ Warr, Philippa (2013-07-09). "Former Valve Employee: ‘It Felt a Lot Like High School’". Wired. Retrieved 2013-10-08.
  55. ↑ "Valve Time". Valve Corporation. Retrieved 2010-06-09.
  56. ↑ Kohler, Chris (2010-06-09). "Valve Delays Portal 2 to 2011". Wired. Retrieved 2010-06-09.
  57. ↑ de Matos, Xav (18 November 2010). "Portal 2 Delayed to 'The Week of April 18'". Shacknews. Retrieved 18 November 2010.
  58. ↑ 58.0 58.1 Remo, Chris (2010-02-24). "Valve's Faliszek: Team Self-Determination Drives Left 4 Dead 2 DLC Strategy". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2010-06-09.
  59. ↑ 59.0 59.1 Yin-Poole, Wesley (2012-07-12). "Valve on Valve Time: "It's charming. It's kind of a compliment."". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2012-07-12.
  60. ↑ Nutt, Christian (2009-11-12). "Q&A: Valve's Swift On Left 4 Dead 2's Production, AI Boost". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2010-06-09.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Valve Software.