fbpx
Wikipedia

Valve Corporation

February 15, 2024

Valve Corporation, also known as Valve Software, is an American video game developer, publisher, and digital distribution company headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. It is the developer of the software distribution platform Steam and the game franchises Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Portal, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress, Left 4 Dead, and Dota.

Valve Corporation
The lobby of Valve's former offices in Bellevue, Washington
FormerlyValve, L.L.C. (1996–2003)
Company typePrivate
Industry
FoundedAugust 24, 1996; 27 years ago (1996-08-24) in Kirkland, Washington, US
Founders
Headquarters
Bellevue, Washington
,
US
Key people
Products
Total equityUS$10 billion[1] (2019)
OwnerGabe Newell (>50%)[2]
Number of employees
~360[3] (2016)
Subsidiaries
ASN32590
Websitevalvesoftware.com

Valve was founded in 1996 by the former Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington. Their debut game, the first-person shooter (FPS) Half-Life (1998), was a critical and commercial success. With its realism, scripted sequences and seamless narrative, it has had a lasting influence on the FPS genre. Harrington left in 2000. In 2003, Valve launched Steam, followed by Half-Life 2 in 2004. With advanced physics systems and an increased focus on story and characters, Half-Life 2 received critical acclaim and sold 12 million copies by 2011. In 2006, Valve released the episodic sequel Half-Life 2: Episode One, followed in 2007 by Episode Two, the multiplayer game Team Fortress 2 and the puzzle game Portal. Portal 2 was released in 2011. In 2013, Valve released the multiplayer online battle arena game Dota 2.

Valve released fewer games in the 2010s and experimented with hardware and virtual reality (VR). They entered the hardware market in 2015 with the Steam Machine, a line of gaming computers, which sold poorly, and released the HTC Vive and Valve Index VR headsets. They returned to the Half-Life series in 2020 with Half-Life: Alyx, their flagship VR game. In 2022, Valve released the Steam Deck, a portable gaming system.

Valve uses a flat structure, whereby employees decide what to work on themselves. They develop games through playtesting and iteration, describing game design as a kind of experimental psychology. By 2012, Valve employed around 250 people and was reportedly worth over US$3 billion. Most of Valve's revenue comes from Steam, which controlled 50 to 70% of the market for downloaded PC games in 2011 and generated an estimated $3.4 billion in 2017.

History

Founding and Half-Life (1996–2003)

 
Gabe Newell (foreground) and Doug Lombardi (background), 2007

Valve was founded in 1996 by former Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington.[5] Newell had spent the prior 13 years at Microsoft developing Windows,[5] including the Windows 95 port of Doom.[6] Wanting to move onto a new venture using their shared wealth, Newell and Harrington founded Valve, L.L.C.[7] in Kirkland, Washington, about five miles from the Microsoft campus in Redmond, on August 24, 1996, Newell's wedding day.[8][9][5][10] In a break from industry style of the time, Newell did not want a company name that suggested "testosterone-gorged muscles and the 'extreme' of anything".[11] Alternative names considered by Newell and Harrington include Hollow Box, Fruitfly Ensemble and Rhino Scar.[11][12]

Valve's first game was Half-Life, a first-person shooter (FPS) with elements of horror.[11] The development was aided by access to the Quake engine by id Software; Valve modified this engine into their GoldSrc engine.[5] After struggling to find a publisher, Valve eventually signed with Sierra On-Line.[5] Half-Life was released in November 1998[13] and was a critical and commercial success.[14][15][16] With its realism, scripted sequences and seamless narrative, it had a lasting influence; according to IGN in 2014, the history of the FPS genre "breaks down pretty cleanly into pre-Half-Life and post-Half-Life eras".[17]

Valve enlisted Gearbox Software to develop three expansions for Half-Life: Opposing Force (1999), Blue Shift (2001) and Decay (2001).[5][18] In 1998, Valve acquired TF Software, a group that had made the popular Team Fortress mod for Quake, and remade it for GoldSrc as Team Fortress Classic in 1999.[19] Valve released the software development kit (SDK) for the GoldSrc engine, facilitating numerous user-created mods. They acquired the developers of one popular mod, Counter-Strike, to create a standalone Counter-Strike game.[5] Happy with Valve's success, Harrington left in 2000.[20]

Source, Steam, and Half-Life 2 (2003–2010)

In 2003, Valve moved to Bellevue, Washington, and reincorporated as Valve Corporation.[5] In 2010, the office moved to a larger location in Bellevue. In 2016, Valve signed a nine-floor lease in the Lincoln Square complex in downtown Bellevue, doubling the size of its offices.[21]

Valve began developing Half-Life 2 six months after the release of the first Half-Life, using its new in-house engine, Source.[20] With advanced physics systems and an increased focus on story and characters, it received critical acclaim upon its release in 2004. By 2011, it had sold 12 million copies.[22] In 2002, Valve launched Steam, a digital storefront and delivery platform.[23][24] Steam initially offered only Valve games, and was mandatory to install Half-Life 2, but became a publisher of third-party games.[25] As Valve became its own publisher via Steam, it transitioned to a flat organization; outside of executive management, Valve does not have bosses, and the company uses an open allocation system, allowing employees to move between departments at will.[26][27]

After having taken years to develop Half-Life 2, Valve moved to episodic development, planning to release shorter games more frequently. Half-Life 2: Episode One, the first in a planned trilogy of episodic Half-Life 2 sequels, was released in 2006.[28] Episode Two followed in 2007, alongside the multiplayer game Team Fortress 2 and the puzzle game Portal, developed from the student project Narbacular Drop.[29]

In January 2008, Valve announced the acquisition of Turtle Rock Studios,[30] which was renamed Valve South.[31] Turtle Rock developed Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 while associated with Valve. Turtle Rock Studios later spun out of Valve again in March 2010.[32]

Forbes estimated that Valve had grossed $70 million in 2005.[33] Screen Digest analyst Ed Barton estimated Valve's 2010 revenue to be in the "high hundreds of millions of dollars".[21] As of 2011, Valve had an estimated worth of $2 to 4 billion and employed 250 people; according to Newell, this made it more profitable per employee than Google or Apple. Most of Valve's revenue comes from Steam, which controlled 50 to 70% of the market for downloaded PC games in 2011.[33]

Transition to services (2010–2014)

 
Logo until 2018

In 2010, Valve hired IceFrog, the developer of Defense of the Ancients, a Warcraft III mod. IceFrog led the development of a sequel not associated with the Warcraft elements, Dota 2, released in 2013.[34] Alongside Dota 2 in 2011, Valve started The International, an annual esports tournament for Dota 2 with a prize pool supported by Valve and funds from microtransactions from battle passes purchased by players.[35] Valve released Portal 2 in April 2011.[36] As with the original Portal, Valve employed a Digipen student team to help develop it; the team behind Tag: The Power of Paint implemented the new gel gameplay.[37]

In December 2012, Valve acquired Star Filled Studios, a two-person studio, to open a San Francisco office.[38] Valve ended the operation in August 2013 when they decided it had little benefit.[39] At the 2013 D.I.C.E. Summit, Newell announced that he and the film director J. J. Abrams were collaborating to produce a Half-Life or Portal film, as well as a possible game.[40]

Valve released fewer games in the 2010s. Instead, it explored hardware. Newell intended to make Valve more like Nintendo, which develops games in tandem with hardware, allowing them to create innovative games such as Super Mario 64.[41] Valve initially focused on augmented reality, but in 2013 Newell laid off many staff to focus on virtual reality (VR).[41] In 2015, Valve released the Steam Machine, a line of gaming computers, which sold poorly.[41]

Media commentators speculated that Valve's transition to service provider with Steam, which generated an estimated $3.4 billion in 2017, had driven it away from game development.[42] Valve canceled games including numerous Half-Life projects (including Episode Three), Left 4 Dead 3, a Soulslike game, and a voxel-based game, A.R.T.I. Additional VR projects included SimTrek, developed by members of the Kerbal Space Program development team, and a new VR device, Vader, that was determined to be too costly for consumers.[43][44] According to the designer Robin Walker, the abundance of projects that failed to gain traction, with no shared vision, damaged morale.[41] Many players grew frustrated in anticipation of a new Half-Life game.[45]

Source 2, virtual reality and Half-Life: Alyx (2015–present)

Valve announced the Source 2 engine in March 2015 and ported Dota 2 to it that September.[46][47] That year, Valve collaborated with the electronics company HTC to develop the HTC Vive, a VR headset released in 2016.[48] Valve experimented with VR games, and in 2016 released The Lab, a collection of VR minigames.[49]

Valve recognized that many players wanted a more ambitious VR AAA game, and began exploring the development of a major VR game.[49] They developed several prototypes, with three further VR projects under development by 2017.[50][51] Finding that the portal systems of their puzzle series Portal were disorienting in VR, they settled on Half-Life.[48] Walker said that Half-Life 3 had been a "terrifyingly daunting prospect", and the team saw VR as a way to return to the series.[48]

Full development of a VR Half-Life game started around late 2016, with the largest team in Valve's history.[52][53] Valve acquired the 3D audio software developer Impulsonic in January 2017.[54] In April 2018, Valve acquired the independent developer Campo Santo, known for the 2016 adventure game Firewatch. Campo Santo planned to develop its own games under Valve, though they initially helped develop Half-Life: Alyx.[55][56]

In November 2018, Valve released Artifact, a digital collectible card game based on Dota 2, with design by Richard Garfield, the creator of Magic: The Gathering. Artifact had unusual pay-for mechanics to acquire new cards, and did not draw a large playerbase, losing 95% of players months after release.[57] In April 2021, Valve abandoned efforts to reboot the project, saying they had not found enough interested players to justify development.[58] In June 2019, Valve released its second-generation VR hardware, the Valve Index.[59] They also released Dota Underlords into early access, an auto battler based on a Dota 2 community-created mode Dota Auto Chess.[60]

In March 2020, Valve released Half-Life: Alyx, a VR game.[61] It received acclaim[62] and was described as VR's first killer app.[63][64][65][66] Newell said in January 2021 that the success of Alyx created desire within the company to develop more games, and that several were under development.[67] Valve collaborated with Netflix for Dota: Dragon's Blood, an animated television series based on Dota, which premiered in March 2021.[68] In February 2022, Valve released the Steam Deck, a portable game system that runs on SteamOS.[69] In March 2023, Valve announced Counter-Strike 2. It is expected to feature major technical improvements.[70][71][needs update]

Structure

 
Designer Robin Walker at Steam Dev Days 2014

Initially, Valve used a hierarchical structure more typical of other development firms, driven by the nature of physical game releases through publishers that required tasks to be completed by deadlines.[72] However, as Valve became its own publisher via Steam, it found the hierarchal structure was hindering progress.[52]

After completing Half-Life 2, Valve transitioned to a flat organization; outside of executive management, Valve does not have bosses, and uses an open allocation system.[73][74] Valve's marketing manager, Doug Lombardi, said: "Nobody writes a design doc and hands it to somebody and says, 'you go build this'. It's the teams that are coming up with the ideas and pushing in the directions that they want to take the product."[75] This approach allows employees to work on whatever interests them, but requires them to take ownership of their product and mistakes they may make, according to Newell. Newell recognized that this structure works well for some but that "there are plenty of great developers for whom this is a terrible place to work".[72]

Although Valve has no bosses, some employees hold more influence due to seniority or relationships. De facto project leads became "centralized conduits" for organization and sharing information, and decisions are made collectively. Valve uses an "Overwatch" process to gather feedback from senior members, which teams may use or ignore.[41]

The success of Steam means that Valve is not dependent on the success of its games.[76] The lack of organization structure has led to project cancellations, as it can be difficult to convince other employees to work on them.[77][78][79] In 2020, Valve acknowledged that this made it difficult to gather momentum and had slowed their output during the 2010s.[80] Their VR projects and Half-Life: Alyx became a turning point, setting short-term studio-wide goals to focus the company. According to Walker, "We sort of had to collectively admit we were wrong on the premise that you will be happiest if you work on something you personally want to work on the most."[52]

In January 2023, People Make Games released a report on Valve's corporate structure and culture, based on interviews with several current and former employees. They found that Valve's flat structure and stack-ranking compensation system created a poor release record and a lack of employee diversity.[76][81]

Valve time

"Valve Time" redirects here. For timing of the opening and closing of valves, see Valve timing.

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 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[82] and using it in announcements about such delays.[83][84] Valve ascribes delays to their mentality of team-driven initiatives over corporate deadlines.[85]

Playtesting

Valve playtests its games extensively, starting from the beginning of development,[86] and iterates based on the results.[41] Its website states: "We believe that all game designers are, in a sense, experimental psychologists."[41] The Valve writer Chet Faliszek said he initially blamed testers when they failed to engage with designs as expected, but changed his mind when multiple testers had the same problem: "By the third or fourth time, all of a sudden you're realizing, 'I'm an idiot. This is pretty obvious this doesn't work. It's not their fault, it's our fault.'"[86] He gave an example from the development of Left 4 Dead, wherein a texture change caused every tester to miss a ladder and become stuck.[86]

Walker said playtesting helped Valve maximize the experience for players. For example, when something "incredibly cool" occurs by chance during a playtest, the developers attempt to have it occur for every player.[87] Newell contrasted this approach to that of Warren Spector, whose open-ended games are designed to be replayed with different outcomes: "You spend all of this time to build stuff that most players will never ever ever see ... If only one per cent of your customers see this cool thing that takes five per cent of your development budget, that's not a good use of resources."[87]

Technology

Initial release Name Type
1998 GoldSrc Game engine
2004 Source
2015 Source 2

Products

Games

Main article: List of Valve games

Valve is the main developer and publisher of the single-player Half-Life and Portal games and the multiplayer games Counter-Strike, Team Fortress 2, Dota 2, Day of Defeat, and Artifact. Valve also published the multiplayer game Left 4 Dead and developed and published Left 4 Dead 2. Unreleased and canceled Valve games include the fantasy role-playing game Prospero and numerous Half-Life projects, including Episode Three.[88] Valve worked with Arkane Studios on The Crossing, which was canceled in May 2009.[89]

Steam

Main article: Steam (service)

Valve announced Steam, its digital distribution service, at the 2002 Game Developers Conference.[90][91] It was launched in September 2003 and was first used to deliver patches and other updates to Valve's online games.[92][93]

On August 1, 2012, Valve announced revisions to the Steam Subscriber Agreement (SSA) to prohibit class action lawsuits by users against the service provider.[94][95] By July 2014, there were over 3,400 games available on Steam, with over 150 million registered accounts by January 2018.[96][97]

Alongside these changes to the SSA, the company also declared publicly the incorporation of Valve S.a.r.l., a subsidiary based in Luxembourg.[94][95] 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 central geographic location – most major partners are accessible, 50% within driving distance.[98]

Valve S.a.r.l. was used to sell games to UK users to avoid paying the full 20% value-added tax (VAT).[99] The tax loophole was expected to close on January 1, 2015.[100] In December 2015, the French consumer group UFC Que Choisir initiated a lawsuit against Valve for several of their Steam policies that conflict or run afoul of French law. One of the reasons was for using the tax loophole.[101] Valve S.a.r.l. ceased business on January 1, 2017, with the main company taking over EU sales again.[102] In August 2017, Valve announced that Steam had reached over 67 million monthly and 33 million daily active users on the platform.[103]

Steam Machine

Main article: Steam Machine (hardware platform)

Newell has been critical of the direction that Microsoft has taken with making Windows a closed architecture similar to Apple's products, and has stated that he believes that the changes made in Windows 8 are "a catastrophe for everyone in the [personal computer] space".[104] Newell identified the open-source Linux platform as an ideal platform for Steam and said the only thing holding back its adoption is the lack of games.[104]

In 2012, Valve announced that they were working on a console/PC hybrid for the living room, dubbed by media as the "Steam Box".[105][106] 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[107] as well as their unique game controller.[8] In May 2014, Valve announced that the company's own SteamOS-powered Steam Machine would be delayed until 2015 due to problems with the game controller.[108] In 2015, Alienware, ZOTAC, and CyberPowerPC launched their versions of the Steam Machine. By June 2016, fewer than half a million had been sold.[109] While the Steam Machine line has been effectively canceled, Valve continued to manufacture and sell Steam Controllers until late November 2019,[110] and publishes both mobile apps and software for the Steam Link, allowing in-home streaming.

Valve Index and virtual reality

At the Game Developers Conference in March 2015, Valve and Taiwanese electronics company HTC unveiled SteamVR and the HTC Vive—a virtual reality platform and a virtual reality headset. The platform would be distinguished by its "Lighthouse" motion tracking system, where sensors on the headset and its included motion controllers read the position of two base station devices mounted in the play area. This would allow for "room-scale" VR experiences, where the player would not be required to remain in a stationary position in front of a camera and would be able to freely walk around the space.[111][112]

In November 2017, Microsoft added beta support for the SteamVR service for Windows Mixed Reality headsets.[113][114] In June 2019, Valve released their own VR headset, known as the Valve Index, positioned as a higher-end device with wider field of view and higher refresh rate. They were accompanied by updated motion controllers, which are strapped against the user's palms and have sensors for detecting input pressure and individual fingers.[115][116][117]

Steam Deck

Main article: Steam Deck

Announced in July 2021, the Steam Deck is a hybrid game console similar to the Nintendo Switch. It is primarily a handheld device that supports playing of Steam games, but through a separate dock unit, the console can output to an external monitor and use external power, networking, and USB accessories connected to the dock. The hardware is based on customized AMD Zen 2 and RDNA 2 chipsets. Units started shipping in February 2022.

Other projects

PowerPlay

PowerPlay was a technological initiative headed by Valve and Cisco Systems to decrease the latency for online games, announced in January 2000.[118] It was described as a set of protocols and deployment standards at the router level to improve performance. It was claimed that a player with 1000 ms ping was able to play against another player on a LAN connection with no noticeable disadvantage.[119] Initially the protocol was to be released with PowerPlay 1.0 focusing on quality of service (QoS) and later a revision, PowerPlay 2.0 that would focus on functionality. Cisco and Valve intended to deliver a single dial-up service in Q1 2000 in the United States with a 30-day free trial with a bundled copy of Team Fortress modified to support PowerPlay.[120]

The standard was to involve purchasing PowerPlay approved Cisco hardware and infrastructure that had adequate bandwidth and QoS standards that prioritize PowerPlay gaming packets at all others' expense. Newell conceded that Internet service providers (ISPs) would bear the brunt of this expense: "The ISPs are going to need to spend a fair amount of money to be compliant with PowerPlay. But how they get that back is up to them. Some will have a tiered service, and some will just try to recoup their investment through reduced customer churn and customer acquisition."[121] Despite never deploying the dial-up plan featuring PowerPlay 1.0, Valve announced in January 2001 that the standard had indeed been finalized.[119] 12 months after its announcement, PowerPlay was abandoned.[citation needed]

Pipeline

In July 2013, Valve announced Pipeline, an intern project consisting of ten high school students working together to learn how to create video game content.[122] Pipeline serves to discuss and answer questions that teenagers often ask about the video game industry,[123] and see if it is possible to train a group of teenagers with minimal work experience to work for a company like Valve.[123] The latter purpose breaks Valve's tradition of employing experienced developers, as the company is not good at "teaching people straight out of school".[123]

Legal disputes

Valve Corporation v. Vivendi Universal Games

Between 2002 and 2005, Valve was involved in a complex legal dispute with its publisher, Vivendi Universal Games (under Vivendi's brand Sierra Entertainment). Valve had entered into a publishing agreement with Sierra to release Half-Life and subsequent games in 1997, with the contract giving Sierra some intellectual property (IP) rights to Valve's games. After Valve began development of Half-Life 2, it agreed a new contract with Sierra in 2001, removing these rights from Sierra and giving Valve some rights for digital distribution.[124] Internally, Valve started work on Steam as a means to digitally distribute these games, and first revealed this project at the March 2002 Game Developers Conference.[124]

By August 2002, Valve had found that Sierra was distributing copies of their games to Internet cafes against the terms of their contracts and filed a lawsuit against Sierra and Vivendi. In addition to claims of copyright infringement, Valve asserted that Sierra breached contract by withholding royalties and delaying the release of Counter-Strike: Condition Zero until after the holiday season. Vivendi and Sierra countersued, stating that Valve had misrepresented their position in the revised 2001 contract since they had been working on Steam at that point as a means to circumvent the publishing agreement. Vivendi sought intellectual property rights to Half-Life and a ruling preventing Valve from using Steam to distribute Half-Life 2.[124]

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. 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.[125] Valve posted on the Steam website that the companies had come to a settlement in court on April 29, 2005.[126] Electronic Arts announced on July 18, 2005, that they would partner with Valve in a multi-year deal to distribute their games, replacing Vivendi Universal.[127] As a result of the trial, the arbitrator also awarded Valve $2,391,932.[128]

Valve Corporation v. Activision Blizzard

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.[128][129]

Dota intellectual property ownership

Defense of the Ancients (DotA) was a landmark mod first released in 2003 that created the basis of the genre of multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA). It was originally developed by Kyle Sommer (who goes by the alias Eul) within Blizzard Entertainment's Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos via its world editor, and spawned several similar efforts, notably DotA-Allstars. While there had been several that contributed to DotA-Allstars, the project was managed primarily by Steve "Guinsoo" Feak, and later by "IceFrog". IceFrog was eventually hired by Valve in 2009, with the rights to the DotA intellectual property being sold to Valve the following year. Eul was also hired into Valve by 2010.[130] Valve then subsequently filed trademarks towards a sequel to DotA, titled Dota 2. DotA-Allstars, LLC, a group of former contributors to the DotA-Allstars project, filed an opposing trademark in August 2010 to contest Valve's claim it owned the property rights.[131]

DotA-Allstars, LLC was eventually acquired by Blizzard to start development of Blizzard All-Stars. Blizzard took over the trademark challenge. The United States Patent & Trademark Office initially ruled in Valve's favor. By this point, Riot Games had hired Guinsoo to help develop their own MOBA, League of Legends. As with IceFrog, Feak transferred his rights to the Dota property to Riot, who in turn sold those to Blizzard. Blizzard filed a lawsuit against Valve to challenge Valve's ownership, pitting the rights assigned through IceFrog to Guinsoo at odds.[132] The case Blizzard Entertainment v. Valve Corporation was settled out of court in May 2012; Valve retained the right to use Dota commercially, while Blizzard reserved the right for fans to use Dota non-commercially.[133] Blizzard changed the names of its own projects to remove the Dota term, and renamed Blizzard All-Stars as Heroes of the Storm. Valve's Dota 2 was released in 2013.[134]

In 2014, mobile developers Lilith and uCool released their games Dota Legends and Heroes Charge, respectively. Both were influenced by Dota and the sequels. In 2017, Valve and Blizzard took joint action against these companies, citing copyright issues related to the Dota names. uCool argued that the Dota games were a collective work and could not be copyrighted by anyone in particular, but the presiding judge, Charles R. Breyer, felt that, due to the trio's actions as maintainers of the Dota mods, they had a rightful copyright claim to this. Separately, Lilith and uCool argued that Eul had, in a forum post from September 2004, assigned an open-source copyright license to Dota, which would make Valve and Blizzard's copyright claims void. The case was later heard by a jury.[130]

ACCC v. Valve Corporation

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) announced it was taking action against Valve in 2014. On March 29, 2016, Valve was found guilty of breaching Australian consumer law because:[135][136]

  • Valve claimed consumers were not entitled to a refund for digitally downloaded games purchased from Valve via the Steam website or Steam Client (in any circumstances);
  • Valve had excluded statutory guarantees and/or warranties that goods would be of acceptable quality; and
  • Valve had restricted or modified statutory guarantees and/or warranties of acceptable quality.

During the prosecution of this case, Valve implemented a refund policy for Steam purchases, but the case still reviewed Valve's actions prior to the onset of the lawsuit. The court overseeing the case sided with the ACCC in assigning a A$3 million (about US$2.1 million) fine against Valve in December 2016, as well as requiring Valve to inform Australian consumers of their rights when purchasing games from Steam.[137] Valve appealed the court's determination that it "engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct and made false or misleading representations about consumer guarantees", as well as seeking to appeal the fine, but the Australian higher courts rejected the appeals in December 2017.[138] In January 2018, Valve filed for a "special leave" of the court's decision, appealing to the High Court of Australia.[139] The High Court dismissed this claim in April 2018, asserting that Valve still was liable under Australian law since it sold products directly to its citizens.[140]

UFC Que Choisir v. Valve Corporation

Consumer rights group UFC Que Choisir, based in France, filed a lawsuit against Valve in December 2015, claiming users should be able to resell their software.[141][142] The High Court of Paris ruled in favor of UFC Que Choisir in September 2019, stating that Valve must allow the resale of Steam games. Valve stated it will appeal the decision.[143]

Skins gambling

Main article: Skin gambling

Valve was named as a defendant in two lawsuits in June and July 2016 related to third-party gambling sites that use the Steamworks API to allow betting with the virtual currency of cosmetic weapon replacement textures, better known as "skins", from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, which through these sites can be converted from or to real-world money. Both suits assert Valve aiding in underaged gambling.[144] Valve subsequently stated it has no commercial ties with these sites, and that it would demand these sites cease their use of the Steamworks API as they violate the authorized use policies.[145][146] In October 2016, the Washington State Gambling Commission required Valve to stop the use of virtual skins for gambling on Steam, stating they would face legal repercussions if they failed to co-operate.[147] On October 17, 2016, Valve sent a letter to the Washington State Gambling Commission stating that they had "no business relationship with such gambling sites", asserting that they come into existence, operate, and go out of existence without their knowledge and consent, adding that they were not aware of any such law that Steam or any of their games were violating.[148]

Anti-competitive practices

In February 2017, the European Commission began investigating Valve and five other publishers—Bandai Namco Entertainment, Capcom, Focus Home Interactive, Koch Media and ZeniMax Media—for anti-competitive practices, specifically the use of geo-blocking through the Steam storefront and Steam product keys to prevent access to software to citizens of certain countries. Such practices would be against the Digital Single Market initiative by the European Union.[149] While the other five companies named are in stages of settling with the EU as of August 2019, Valve has stated it plans to fight the charges, asserting that geo-blocking affects less than 3% of its games, and that it had turned off such geo-blocking within the EU in 2015.[150]

Discrimination lawsuit

In 2016, a former employee filed a suit against Valve alleging poor working conditions and harassment.[151] The jury ruled in favor of Valve in 2017.[152]

References

  1. ^ "Bloomberg Billionaires Index: #257 Gabe Newell". Bloomberg. from the original on February 2, 2021. Retrieved February 10, 2021.
  2. ^ Chiang, Oliver (February 9, 2011). "The Master of Online Mayhem". Forbes. from the original on March 7, 2017. Retrieved March 6, 2017.
  3. ^ Chalk, Andy (October 18, 2016). "Valve denies wrongdoing in skin gambling legal rumblings: 'no factual or legal support for these accusations'". PC Gamer. from the original on October 18, 2016. Retrieved October 18, 2016.
  4. ^ "Privacy Policy Agreement". Valve. from the original on December 31, 2016. Retrieved January 1, 2017. Payment processing related to Content and Services and/or physical goods purchased on Steam is performed by either Valve Corporation directly or by Valve's fully owned subsidiary Valve GmbH on behalf of Valve Corporation depending on the type of payment method used.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Dunn, Jeff (October 4, 2013). "Full Steam ahead: The History of Valve". GamesRadar. from the original on October 16, 2016. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  6. ^ "Gabe Newell made Windows a viable gaming platform, and Linux is next". Extreme Tech. from the original on December 17, 2020. Retrieved March 8, 2021.
  7. ^ "GDC 2002: Valve Steams - IGN". IGN. March 22, 2002. from the original on April 11, 2020. Retrieved January 24, 2020.
  8. ^ a b "Steam Message". Steam. Valve. August 24, 2007. from the original on October 15, 2008. Retrieved November 8, 2008. it was exactly eleven years ago that Valve was born
  9. ^ Towns, William R. (March 9, 2005). "Valve Corporation v. ValveNET, Inc., ValveNET, Inc., Charles Morrin Case No. D2005-0038". WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center. World Intellectual Property Organization. from the original on October 15, 2008. Retrieved November 8, 2008.
  10. ^ Keefer, John (March 31, 2006). . GameSpy. Archived from the original on June 9, 2007.
  11. ^ a b c . GameSpot. Archived from the original on February 23, 2011. Retrieved September 12, 2006.
  12. ^ Walker, John (November 21, 2007). "RPS Exclusive: Gabe Newell Interview". Rock Paper Shotgun. from the original on June 9, 2019. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  13. ^ . GameSpot. Archived from the original on February 25, 2011. Retrieved September 14, 2006.
  14. ^ Green, Jeff (February 1, 1999). . Computer Gaming World. Archived from the original on February 9, 2002. Retrieved April 14, 2010.
  15. ^ "Half-Life Review". GameSpot. from the original on October 31, 2013. Retrieved April 25, 2007.
  16. ^ Rorie, Matthew (May 18, 2007). "Greatest Games of All Time: Half-Life". GameSpot. from the original on January 19, 2015. Retrieved March 31, 2016.
  17. ^ "Half-Life – #1 Top Shooters". IGN. September 13, 2013. from the original on February 28, 2014. Retrieved February 23, 2014.
  18. ^ Osborn, Alex (August 28, 2017). "Gearbox CEO: 'I Don't Know That We Could or Should' Make Half-Life 2: Episode 3 — IGN Unfiltered". ign.com. from the original on July 5, 2018. Retrieved July 5, 2018.
  19. ^ "Team Fortress Full Speed Ahead". GameSpot. from the original on March 23, 2014. Retrieved June 2, 2016.
  20. ^ a b Geoff, Keighley. "The Final Hours of Half-Life 2". GameSpot. from the original on December 26, 2019. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
  21. ^ a b Levy, Nat (August 3, 2016). "Valve leases nine floors in planned skyscraper, more than doubling its headquarters size". GeekWire. from the original on August 4, 2016. Retrieved August 3, 2016.
  22. ^ Chiang, Oliver (February 28, 2011). "The Master of Online Mayhem". Forbes. from the original on February 13, 2011.
  23. ^ Case, Loyd (March 22, 2002). . PC Magazine. Archived from the original on March 2, 2016. Retrieved February 14, 2016.
  24. ^ Lee, James (April 30, 2008). "The Last of the Independents?". GamesIndustry.biz. from the original on August 15, 2017. Retrieved July 9, 2010.
  25. ^ Chiang, Oliver. "The Master of Online Mayhem". Forbes. from the original on February 13, 2011. Retrieved February 14, 2011.
  26. ^ Suddath, Claire (April 25, 2012). "What Makes Valve Software the Best Office Ever?". Bloomberg. from the original on August 15, 2012. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
  27. ^ Suddath, Claire (April 27, 2012). "Why ThereAre No Bosses At Valve". Bloomberg. from the original on September 4, 2013. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
  28. ^ Dobson, Jason (May 25, 2006). "Half-Life 2: Episode One Dated, Trilogy Confirmed". Game Developer. from the original on May 16, 2022. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
  29. ^ Dudley, Breir (April 17, 2011). . The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on April 20, 2011. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
  30. ^ "Valve Acquires Turtle Rock Studios" (Press release). Valve. January 10, 2008. from the original on October 15, 2008. Retrieved January 10, 2008.
  31. ^ Robinson, Martin (February 11, 2014). "Why Turtle Rock left Valve". Eurogamer. from the original on May 2, 2022. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
  32. ^ Bramwell, Tom (March 18, 2010). "Turtle Rock Studios reforms". Eurogamer. from the original on May 2, 2022. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
  33. ^ a b Chiang, Oliver (February 9, 2011). "The Master of Online Mayhem". Forbes. from the original on February 13, 2011. Retrieved October 13, 2016.
  34. ^ Biessener, Adam (October 13, 2010). . Game Informer. Archived from the original on October 16, 2010. Retrieved October 8, 2012.
  35. ^ Reilly, Jim (August 1, 2011). . IGN. Archived from the original on November 9, 2012.
  36. ^ Hillier, Brenna (April 18, 2011). "No more potatoes: Portal 2 available right now on Steam". VG247. from the original on April 20, 2011. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
  37. ^ Remo, Chris (September 20, 2010). "Synthesizing Portal 2". Game Developer. Archived from the original on September 8, 2012. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
  38. ^ Hing, David (December 17, 2012). "Valve acquires or hires Star Filled Studios". bit-gamer.net. Bit-tech.net. from the original on July 14, 2013. Retrieved August 31, 2013.
  39. ^ Reilly, Luke (August 7, 2013). "Valve's San Francisco Remote Office Shut Down". IGN. from the original on September 2, 2013.
  40. ^ "LambdaGeneration 2.0 – Coming Soon". Lambda Generation. February 6, 2013. from the original on May 1, 2013. Retrieved August 31, 2013.
  41. ^ a b c d e f g Keighley, Geoff (2020). The Final Hours of Half-Life Alyx. Steam.
  42. ^ Cooper, Ryan (June 4, 2019). "How capitalism killed one of the best video game studios". The Week. from the original on June 7, 2019. Retrieved June 7, 2019.
  43. ^ Chalk, Andy (July 9, 2020). "At least 5 Half-Life projects were cancelled before Alyx, including Half-Life 3". PC Gamer. from the original on July 11, 2020. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
  44. ^ Skrebels, Joe (July 9, 2020). "Details of Multiple Cancelled Valve Projects Revealed, Including Half-Life 3". IGN. from the original on July 13, 2020. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
  45. ^ "Whatever happened to Half-Life 3? The complete saga so far". PCGamesN. November 19, 2018. from the original on October 21, 2019. Retrieved November 19, 2018.
  46. ^ Langley, Hugh (March 3, 2015). "Valve just announced its plans for Steam Machines... and Source 2". Tech Radar. from the original on March 6, 2015. Retrieved March 3, 2015.
  47. ^ Macy, Seth (September 9, 2015). "Dota 2 Now Valve's First Ever Source 2 Game". IGN. from the original on September 10, 2015. Retrieved September 9, 2015.
  48. ^ a b c Keighley, Geoff (November 21, 2019). "The Final Hours of Half-Life: Alyx". from the original on November 21, 2019. Retrieved November 21, 2019 – via YouTube.
  49. ^ a b Reeves, Ben. "Valve On Why Half-Life: Alyx Needed To Be In VR". Game Informer. from the original on March 4, 2020. Retrieved March 4, 2020.
  50. ^ Campbell, Colin (February 10, 2017). "Valve is working on three full VR games". Polygon. from the original on March 2, 2017. Retrieved November 21, 2019.
  51. ^ Hollister, Sean. "Valve, of Half-Life and Portal, is making 3 full VR games". CNET. from the original on March 10, 2018. Retrieved November 21, 2019.
  52. ^ a b c Machkovech, Sam (July 9, 2020). "Valve secrets spill over—including Half-Life 3—in new Steam documentary app". Ars Technica. from the original on July 19, 2020. Retrieved July 10, 2020.
  53. ^ Keighley, Geoff (November 21, 2019). "The Final Hours of Half-Life: Alyx". from the original on November 21, 2019. Retrieved November 21, 2019 – via YouTube.
  54. ^ Feltham, Jamie (January 13, 2017). "Sounds Good: Valve Acquires 3D Audio Company Impulsonic". UploadVR. from the original on February 3, 2020. Retrieved February 3, 2020.
  55. ^ Alexander, Julia (April 21, 2018). "Valve acquires Firewatch developer, Campo Santo". Polygon. from the original on December 3, 2019. Retrieved April 21, 2018.
  56. ^ Kelly, Andy; Livingston, Christopher (November 21, 2019). "12 big things we learned about Half-Life: Alyx". PC Gamer. from the original on November 23, 2019. Retrieved March 27, 2020.
  57. ^ Skrebels, Joe (March 18, 2020). "Gabe Newell: Artifact Was a 'Giant Disappointment'". IGN. from the original on March 19, 2020. Retrieved March 18, 2020.
  58. ^ Machkovech, Sam (April 3, 2021). "Valve scraps revamped Artifact, dumps free, unfinished "2.0" version on Steam". Ars Technica. from the original on May 17, 2021. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
  59. ^ Hollister, Sean (April 30, 2019). "Valve's Index VR headset will officially cost $999, and here's what it's all about". The Verge. from the original on April 26, 2022. Retrieved June 5, 2019.
  60. ^ Gilliam, Ryan (June 21, 2019). "Dota Underlords feels like a clone of Auto Chess". Polygon. from the original on June 30, 2019. Retrieved February 3, 2020.
  61. ^ Marks, Tom (March 23, 2020). "Valve Explains Why Half-Life 2: Episode 3 Was Never Made". IGN. from the original on March 23, 2020. Retrieved March 23, 2020.
  62. ^ "Half-Life: Alyx for PC Reviews". Metacritic. from the original on February 16, 2020. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
  63. ^ Carbotte, Kevin (March 23, 2020). "Half-Life: Alyx Gameplay Review: (Almost) Every VR Headset Tested". Tom's Hardware. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  64. ^ Robinson, Andrew (March 23, 2020). "Review: Half-Life Alyx is VR's stunning killer app". VGC. from the original on March 24, 2020. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  65. ^ Oloman, Jordan (March 23, 2020). "Half-Life: Alyx is a watershed moment for virtual reality | TechRadar". TechRadar. from the original on March 24, 2020. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
  66. ^ "CES 2020: Teslasuit Will Unveil New Haptic VR Gloves". Tech Times. December 27, 2019. from the original on March 25, 2020. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
  67. ^ Ivan, Tom (January 20, 2021). "Gabe Newell says Valve has multiple games in development and 'wants to do more single-player'". Video Games Chronicle. from the original on January 20, 2021. Retrieved January 20, 2021.
  68. ^ Plunkett, Luke (February 16, 2021). "Valve & Netflix Are Making A DOTA Anime". Kotaku. from the original on February 17, 2021. Retrieved February 16, 2021.
  69. ^ Fenlon, Wes (February 25, 2022). "Steam Deck review". PC Gamer. from the original on March 14, 2022. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
  70. ^ Stedman, Alex (March 22, 2023). "Counter-Strike 2 Revealed Out of Nowhere, Release Window Confirmed". IGN. from the original on March 22, 2023. Retrieved March 22, 2023.
  71. ^ "Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test FAQ". from the original on March 22, 2023. Retrieved March 22, 2023.
  72. ^ a b Wawro, Alex (February 17, 2017). "Gabe Newell discusses the downsides of working at Valve". Game Developer. from the original on February 18, 2017. Retrieved February 17, 2017.
  73. ^ Suddath, Claire (April 25, 2012). "What Makes Valve Software the Best Office Ever?". Bloomberg. from the original on August 15, 2012.
  74. ^ Suddath, Claire (April 27, 2012). "Why There Are No Bosses At Valve". Bloomberg. from the original on September 4, 2013. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
  75. ^ Farrelly, Steve (March 28, 2011). "AusGamers Valve Software 2011 Video Interview". AusGamers. from the original on July 30, 2022. Retrieved July 30, 2022.
  76. ^ a b Macgregor, Jody (January 27, 2023). "Valve's unusual corporate structure causes its problems, report suggests". PC Gamer. Retrieved September 24, 2023.
  77. ^ Petitte, Omri (February 13, 2013). "Valve lays off several employees in hardware, mobile teams [Updated]". PC Gamer. from the original on February 20, 2022. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
  78. ^ Varoufakis, Yanis (August 3, 2012). . Valve Economics. Archived from the original on August 7, 2012. Retrieved August 12, 2012.
  79. ^ Hern, Alex (August 3, 2012). "Valve Software: free marketeer's dream, or nightmare?". New Statesman. from the original on August 5, 2012. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
  80. ^ Says, Germinalconsequence (July 10, 2020). "Half-Life: Alyx Helped Change Valve's Approach To Development". Kotaku Australia. from the original on July 19, 2020. Retrieved July 19, 2020.
  81. ^ Benfell, Grace (January 26, 2023). "New Report Claims Valve's Structure And Work Culture Is Hostile To Diversity". GameSpot. Retrieved September 24, 2023.
  82. ^ "Valve Time". Valve. from the original on June 18, 2010. Retrieved June 9, 2010.
  83. ^ Kohler, Chris (June 9, 2010). "Valve Delays Portal 2 to 2011". Wired. from the original on June 12, 2010. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
  84. ^ de Matos, Xav (November 18, 2010). "Portal 2 Delayed to 'The Week of April 18'". Shacknews. from the original on November 20, 2010. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
  85. ^ Remo, Chris (February 24, 2010). "Valve's Faliszek: Team Self-Determination Drives Left 4 Dead 2 DLC Strategy". Game Developer. from the original on May 9, 2010. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
  86. ^ a b c Remo, Chris (August 7, 2008). "Valve's Faliszek: Playtesters Aren't Idiots, It's You". Game Developer. from the original on May 2, 2022. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
  87. ^ a b Bramwell, Tom (September 8, 2007). "Opening the Valve". Eurogamer. Retrieved December 15, 2023.
  88. ^ Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar. Prima Games. 2004. p. 10. ISBN 0-7615-4364-3.
  89. ^ O'Conner, Alice (May 15, 2009). "Arkane and Valve's 'The Crossing' on Hold". Shacknews. from the original on May 9, 2013. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
  90. ^ "Full Steam ahead: The History of Valve". gamesradar. from the original on October 16, 2016. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
  91. ^ "GDC 2002: Valve unveils Steam". GameSpot. March 22, 2002. from the original on May 2, 2022. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
  92. ^ "The 13-year evolution of Steam". pcgamer. from the original on August 13, 2017. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
  93. ^ Burnes, Andrew (September 10, 2003). "Steam Client Delayed". IGN. from the original on March 2, 2018. Retrieved March 1, 2018.
  94. ^ a b "Steam's Sub Agreement Prohibits Class-Action Lawsuits". Rock Paper Shotgun. August 1, 2012. from the original on August 3, 2012. Retrieved August 3, 2012.
  95. ^ a b "Updated Steam Subscriber Agreement". Valve. August 1, 2012. from the original on August 3, 2012. Retrieved August 3, 2012.
  96. ^ "Steam has 75 million active users, Valve announces at Dev Days". Engadget. January 15, 2014. from the original on July 19, 2014. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
  97. ^ Supor, Taylor (August 3, 2017). "Valve reveals Steam's monthly active user count and game sales by region". GeekWire. from the original on February 16, 2018. Retrieved November 27, 2017.
  98. ^ Valve Software Latest Gaming Company to Set Up in Luxembourg May 2, 2014, at the Wayback Machine. Chronicle.lu (September 4, 2012). Retrieved on May 23, 2014.
  99. ^ Karmali, Luke. (March 25, 2014) Steam, Amazon and iTunes Prices Could Rise in UK May 2, 2014, at the Wayback Machine. IGN. Retrieved on May 23, 2014.
  100. ^ "UK closing tax loophole on Steam game downloads". MCV. March 25, 2014. from the original on May 2, 2022. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
  101. ^ Nutt, Christian (December 17, 2015). "French consumer group sues Valve over Steam policies". Game Developer. from the original on December 18, 2015. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
  102. ^ "Steam Subscriber Agreement". Valve. from the original on January 1, 2017. Retrieved January 1, 2017. This Agreement was last updated on January 1st, 2017 ("Revision Date"). If you were a Subscriber before the Revision Date, it replaces your existing agreement with Valve or Valve SARL on the day that you explicitly accept it.
  103. ^ "Valve reveals Steam's monthly active user count and game sales by region". GeekWire. August 3, 2017. from the original on February 16, 2018. Retrieved August 4, 2017.
  104. ^ a b Crabtree, Dan (July 25, 2012). "Gabe Newell: "Windows 8 Is Kind of a Catastrophe"". IGN. from the original on May 2, 2022. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
  105. ^ Davies, Marsh (December 9, 2012). "Valve confirms Steam Box – a "very controlled" PC for the living room". PC Gamer. from the original on March 13, 2013. Retrieved April 21, 2013.
  106. ^ Newman, Jared (March 18, 2013). "Valve's Steam Box: The plot thickens for PC-based game consoles". PC World. from the original on April 27, 2013. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
  107. ^ Kohler, Chris (September 23, 2013). "Valve Continues Its War on Game Consoles With Steam Operating System". Wired. from the original on September 25, 2013. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
  108. ^ Vaughn-Nichols, Steven J. (May 28, 2014). "Valve Steam Machines delayed until 2015". ZDNet. from the original on June 1, 2014. Retrieved June 3, 2014.
  109. ^ Wilde, Tyler (April 2, 2018). "What happened to Steam Machines?". PC Gamer. from the original on May 7, 2018. Retrieved May 7, 2018.
  110. ^ Hollister, Sean (November 26, 2019). "Pour one out for the Steam Controller, sold out forever after $5 fire sale". The Verge. from the original on December 14, 2019. Retrieved December 13, 2019.
  111. ^ Orland, Kyle (March 5, 2015). "Hands-on: Valve/HTC Vive opens up the virtual reality experience". Ars Technica. from the original on November 5, 2019. Retrieved November 21, 2019.
  112. ^ Machkovech, Sam (June 12, 2015). "SteamVR: The room-scale VR world that feels like an "IMAX in your house"". Ars Technica. from the original on July 16, 2019. Retrieved November 21, 2019.
  113. ^ Shilov, Anton. "Windows Mixed Reality Headsets Gain SteamVR Support, a Library of VR Games". from the original on December 28, 2017. Retrieved December 5, 2017.
  114. ^ "SteamVR games available in Windows Mixed Reality on November 15th". The Verge. from the original on January 3, 2018. Retrieved November 11, 2017.
  115. ^ Higham, Michael. "Valve Index Impressions – A Necessary But Incremental Step For PC VR". GameSpot. from the original on May 14, 2022. Retrieved June 9, 2019.
  116. ^ Robertson, Adi (May 28, 2019). "The Valve Index might have the most fun VR controllers I've ever tried". The Verge. from the original on August 3, 2019. Retrieved November 21, 2019.
  117. ^ Robertson, Adi (June 22, 2018). "Valve is shipping new 'Knuckles' VR controllers to developers with a Portal-themed demo". from the original on May 15, 2019. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  118. ^ "Valve, Cisco, and a Host of PC Developers Unveil PowerPlay". IGN. January 7, 2000. from the original on July 8, 2015.
  119. ^ a b . Planetfortress. 2000. Archived from the original on July 17, 2012. Retrieved November 17, 2012.
  120. ^ . Archived from the original on August 17, 2000. Retrieved November 17, 2012.
  121. ^ "PowerPlay". EuroGamer. January 19, 2000. from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved November 17, 2012.
  122. ^ . Valve. Archived from the original on August 31, 2013. Retrieved September 13, 2013.
  123. ^ a b c . Valve. Archived from the original on August 20, 2014. Retrieved August 31, 2013.
  124. ^ a b c Feldman, Curt (December 15, 2004). "Valve vs. Vivendi Universal dogfight heats up in US District Court". GameSpot. from the original on May 10, 2022. Retrieved December 9, 2020.
  125. ^ Feldman, Curt (September 20, 2004). "Valve vs. Vivendi Universal dogfight heats up in US District Court". GameSpot. from the original on September 8, 2008. Retrieved November 8, 2008.
  126. ^ "Valve and Vivendi Universal Games Settle Lawsuit" (Press release). Valve. April 29, 2005. from the original on October 15, 2008. Retrieved November 8, 2008.
  127. ^ . Electronic Arts Inc. July 18, 2005. Archived from the original on February 16, 2007. Retrieved November 8, 2008.
  128. ^ a b . gamepolitics.com. April 30, 2009. Archived from the original on May 2, 2009. Retrieved May 1, 2009. 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.
  129. ^ "Valve Corporation v. Activision Blizzard, Inc". United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. July 30, 2010. from the original on February 9, 2015.
  130. ^ a b Orland, Kyle (May 17, 2017). "Does Valve really own Dota? A jury will decide". Ars Technica. from the original on May 21, 2017. Retrieved May 22, 2017.
  131. ^ Augustine, Josh (August 17, 2010). "Riot Games' dev counter-files "DotA" trademark". PC Gamer. from the original on February 3, 2013. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
  132. ^ Plunkett, Luke (February 10, 2012). "Blizzard and Valve go to War Over DOTA Name". Kotaku. from the original on February 11, 2012. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
  133. ^ Reilly, Jim (May 11, 2012). "Valve, Blizzard Reach DOTA Trademark Agreement". Game Informer. from the original on July 24, 2012.
  134. ^ Narcisse, Evan (October 17, 2013). "Blizzard's Diablo/Starcraft/WoW Crossover Has a New Name". Kotaku. from the original on October 20, 2013.
  135. ^ Wilkins, Georgia (March 29, 2016). "Online games giant Valve found to have breached Australian consumer law". Sydney Morning Herald. from the original on September 13, 2016. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  136. ^ Pearce, Rohan (March 29, 2016). "ACCC chalks up court win against Valve Software". Computerworld. International Data Corporation. from the original on December 23, 2016. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  137. ^ Walker, Alex (December 23, 2016). "Australian Court Fines Valve $2.1 Million Over Refund Policy". Kotaku. from the original on December 24, 2016. Retrieved December 25, 2016.
  138. ^ Jones, Ali (December 22, 2017). "Australian courts say Valve must pay a $3 million fine for "misleading" consumers". PCGamesN. from the original on December 28, 2017. Retrieved December 27, 2017.
  139. ^ Makuch, Eddie (January 22, 2018). "Ordered To Pay $3 Million Fine, Valve Files Another Appeal In Australia". GameSpot. from the original on January 23, 2018. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  140. ^ Makuch, Eddie (April 19, 2018). "Valve Loses Appeal For $3 Million Fine In Australia". GameSpot. from the original on April 20, 2018. Retrieved April 19, 2018.
  141. ^ Hayward, Andrew (December 21, 2015). "Valve sued by French group over right to resell Steam games". Stuff. from the original on October 9, 2016. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  142. ^ Sayer, Peter (December 18, 2015). "Valve slapped with lawsuit over 'unfair' Steam game resale ban". PC World. International Data Group. from the original on October 7, 2016. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
  143. ^ Campbell, Colin (September 19, 2019). "French court rules that Steam's ban on reselling used games is contrary to European law". Polygon. from the original on December 19, 2019. Retrieved September 19, 2019.
  144. ^ Sarkar, Samit (July 11, 2016). "How do Counter-Strike: Global Offensive skins work?". Polygon. from the original on July 11, 2016. Retrieved July 11, 2016.
  145. ^ Francis, Bryant (July 13, 2016). "Valve says it will start cracking down on third-party gambling sites". Game Developer. from the original on July 15, 2016. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
  146. ^ "News – In-Game Item Trading Update". Steam Store. from the original on July 15, 2016. Retrieved July 15, 2016.
  147. ^ McAloon, Alissa (October 5, 2016). "Washington state authority orders Valve to stop allowing CS:GO skin gambling". Gamasutra. from the original on October 6, 2016. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
  148. ^ Grosso, Robert (October 17, 2016). "[Update] Valve to Respond to Washington Gambling Commission After Given Deadline". techraptor.net. from the original on November 14, 2016. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
  149. ^ Handrahan, Matthew (February 2, 2017). "Valve under investigation by European Commission for Steam geo-blocking". GamesIndustry.biz. from the original on February 2, 2017. Retrieved February 2, 2017.
  150. ^ Chee, Foo Yun (August 29, 2019). "Exclusive: Valve to fight EU antitrust charges, five videogame publishers to settle: sources". Reuters. from the original on August 29, 2019. Retrieved August 29, 2019.
  151. ^ Chalk, Andy (May 24, 2016). "Former Valve employee files $3.1 million lawsuit over wrongful dismissal (Updated)". PC Gamer. from the original on July 11, 2020. Retrieved July 11, 2020.
  152. ^ Matulef, Jeffrey (May 25, 2016). "Former Valve employee is suing the company for $3.1m". Eurogamer. from the original on May 2, 2022. Retrieved May 1, 2022.

External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Valve Corporation.
  • Official website  

February 15, 2024
valve, corporation, also, known, valve, software, american, video, game, developer, publisher, digital, distribution, company, headquartered, bellevue, washington, developer, software, distribution, platform, steam, game, franchises, half, life, counter, strik. Valve Corporation also known as Valve Software is an American video game developer publisher and digital distribution company headquartered in Bellevue Washington It is the developer of the software distribution platform Steam and the game franchises Half Life Counter Strike Portal Day of Defeat Team Fortress Left 4 Dead and Dota Valve CorporationThe lobby of Valve s former offices in Bellevue WashingtonFormerlyValve L L C 1996 2003 Company typePrivateIndustryVideo gamesDigital distributionFoundedAugust 24 1996 27 years ago 1996 08 24 in Kirkland Washington USFoundersGabe NewellMike HarringtonHeadquartersBellevue Washington USKey peopleGabe Newell president Scott Lynch COO ProductsVideo games Counter StrikeDay of DefeatDotaHalf LifeLeft 4 DeadPortalTeam FortressHardware HTC ViveSteam ControllerSteam DeckSteam LinkSteam MachineValve IndexSoftware GoldSrcProtonSourceSource 2Source FilmmakerSteamSteamOSValve Anti CheatVOGLTotal equityUS 10 billion 1 2019 OwnerGabe Newell gt 50 2 Number of employees 360 3 2016 SubsidiariesValve S a r l Valve GmbH 4 Campo SantoASN32590Websitevalvesoftware comValve was founded in 1996 by the former Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington Their debut game the first person shooter FPS Half Life 1998 was a critical and commercial success With its realism scripted sequences and seamless narrative it has had a lasting influence on the FPS genre Harrington left in 2000 In 2003 Valve launched Steam followed by Half Life 2 in 2004 With advanced physics systems and an increased focus on story and characters Half Life 2 received critical acclaim and sold 12 million copies by 2011 In 2006 Valve released the episodic sequel Half Life 2 Episode One followed in 2007 by Episode Two the multiplayer game Team Fortress 2 and the puzzle game Portal Portal 2 was released in 2011 In 2013 Valve released the multiplayer online battle arena game Dota 2 Valve released fewer games in the 2010s and experimented with hardware and virtual reality VR They entered the hardware market in 2015 with the Steam Machine a line of gaming computers which sold poorly and released the HTC Vive and Valve Index VR headsets They returned to the Half Life series in 2020 with Half Life Alyx their flagship VR game In 2022 Valve released the Steam Deck a portable gaming system Valve uses a flat structure whereby employees decide what to work on themselves They develop games through playtesting and iteration describing game design as a kind of experimental psychology By 2012 Valve employed around 250 people and was reportedly worth over US 3 billion Most of Valve s revenue comes from Steam which controlled 50 to 70 of the market for downloaded PC games in 2011 and generated an estimated 3 4 billion in 2017 Contents 1 History 1 1 Founding and Half Life 1996 2003 1 2 Source Steam and Half Life 2 2003 2010 1 3 Transition to services 2010 2014 1 4 Source 2 virtual reality and Half Life Alyx 2015 present 2 Structure 2 1 Valve time 2 2 Playtesting 3 Technology 4 Products 4 1 Games 4 2 Steam 4 3 Steam Machine 4 4 Valve Index and virtual reality 4 5 Steam Deck 4 6 Other projects 4 6 1 PowerPlay 4 6 2 Pipeline 5 Legal disputes 5 1 Valve Corporation v Vivendi Universal Games 5 2 Valve Corporation v Activision Blizzard 5 3 Dota intellectual property ownership 5 4 ACCC v Valve Corporation 5 5 UFC Que Choisir v Valve Corporation 5 6 Skins gambling 5 7 Anti competitive practices 5 8 Discrimination lawsuit 6 References 7 External linksHistoryFounding and Half Life 1996 2003 nbsp Gabe Newell foreground and Doug Lombardi background 2007Valve was founded in 1996 by former Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington 5 Newell had spent the prior 13 years at Microsoft developing Windows 5 including the Windows 95 port of Doom 6 Wanting to move onto a new venture using their shared wealth Newell and Harrington founded Valve L L C 7 in Kirkland Washington about five miles from the Microsoft campus in Redmond on August 24 1996 Newell s wedding day 8 9 5 10 In a break from industry style of the time Newell did not want a company name that suggested testosterone gorged muscles and the extreme of anything 11 Alternative names considered by Newell and Harrington include Hollow Box Fruitfly Ensemble and Rhino Scar 11 12 Valve s first game was Half Life a first person shooter FPS with elements of horror 11 The development was aided by access to the Quake engine by id Software Valve modified this engine into their GoldSrc engine 5 After struggling to find a publisher Valve eventually signed with Sierra On Line 5 Half Life was released in November 1998 13 and was a critical and commercial success 14 15 16 With its realism scripted sequences and seamless narrative it had a lasting influence according to IGN in 2014 the history of the FPS genre breaks down pretty cleanly into pre Half Life and post Half Life eras 17 Valve enlisted Gearbox Software to develop three expansions for Half Life Opposing Force 1999 Blue Shift 2001 and Decay 2001 5 18 In 1998 Valve acquired TF Software a group that had made the popular Team Fortress mod for Quake and remade it for GoldSrc as Team Fortress Classic in 1999 19 Valve released the software development kit SDK for the GoldSrc engine facilitating numerous user created mods They acquired the developers of one popular mod Counter Strike to create a standalone Counter Strike game 5 Happy with Valve s success Harrington left in 2000 20 Source Steam and Half Life 2 2003 2010 In 2003 Valve moved to Bellevue Washington and reincorporated as Valve Corporation 5 In 2010 the office moved to a larger location in Bellevue In 2016 Valve signed a nine floor lease in the Lincoln Square complex in downtown Bellevue doubling the size of its offices 21 Valve began developing Half Life 2 six months after the release of the first Half Life using its new in house engine Source 20 With advanced physics systems and an increased focus on story and characters it received critical acclaim upon its release in 2004 By 2011 it had sold 12 million copies 22 In 2002 Valve launched Steam a digital storefront and delivery platform 23 24 Steam initially offered only Valve games and was mandatory to install Half Life 2 but became a publisher of third party games 25 As Valve became its own publisher via Steam it transitioned to a flat organization outside of executive management Valve does not have bosses and the company uses an open allocation system allowing employees to move between departments at will 26 27 After having taken years to develop Half Life 2 Valve moved to episodic development planning to release shorter games more frequently Half Life 2 Episode One the first in a planned trilogy of episodic Half Life 2 sequels was released in 2006 28 Episode Two followed in 2007 alongside the multiplayer game Team Fortress 2 and the puzzle game Portal developed from the student project Narbacular Drop 29 In January 2008 Valve announced the acquisition of Turtle Rock Studios 30 which was renamed Valve South 31 Turtle Rock developed Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 while associated with Valve Turtle Rock Studios later spun out of Valve again in March 2010 32 Forbes estimated that Valve had grossed 70 million in 2005 33 Screen Digest analyst Ed Barton estimated Valve s 2010 revenue to be in the high hundreds of millions of dollars 21 As of 2011 Valve had an estimated worth of 2 to 4 billion and employed 250 people according to Newell this made it more profitable per employee than Google or Apple Most of Valve s revenue comes from Steam which controlled 50 to 70 of the market for downloaded PC games in 2011 33 Transition to services 2010 2014 nbsp Logo until 2018In 2010 Valve hired IceFrog the developer of Defense of the Ancients a Warcraft III mod IceFrog led the development of a sequel not associated with the Warcraft elements Dota 2 released in 2013 34 Alongside Dota 2 in 2011 Valve started The International an annual esports tournament for Dota 2 with a prize pool supported by Valve and funds from microtransactions from battle passes purchased by players 35 Valve released Portal 2 in April 2011 36 As with the original Portal Valve employed a Digipen student team to help develop it the team behind Tag The Power of Paint implemented the new gel gameplay 37 In December 2012 Valve acquired Star Filled Studios a two person studio to open a San Francisco office 38 Valve ended the operation in August 2013 when they decided it had little benefit 39 At the 2013 D I C E Summit Newell announced that he and the film director J J Abrams were collaborating to produce a Half Life or Portal film as well as a possible game 40 Valve released fewer games in the 2010s Instead it explored hardware Newell intended to make Valve more like Nintendo which develops games in tandem with hardware allowing them to create innovative games such as Super Mario 64 41 Valve initially focused on augmented reality but in 2013 Newell laid off many staff to focus on virtual reality VR 41 In 2015 Valve released the Steam Machine a line of gaming computers which sold poorly 41 Media commentators speculated that Valve s transition to service provider with Steam which generated an estimated 3 4 billion in 2017 had driven it away from game development 42 Valve canceled games including numerous Half Life projects including Episode Three Left 4 Dead 3 a Soulslike game and a voxel based game A R T I Additional VR projects included SimTrek developed by members of the Kerbal Space Program development team and a new VR device Vader that was determined to be too costly for consumers 43 44 According to the designer Robin Walker the abundance of projects that failed to gain traction with no shared vision damaged morale 41 Many players grew frustrated in anticipation of a new Half Life game 45 Source 2 virtual reality and Half Life Alyx 2015 present Valve announced the Source 2 engine in March 2015 and ported Dota 2 to it that September 46 47 That year Valve collaborated with the electronics company HTC to develop the HTC Vive a VR headset released in 2016 48 Valve experimented with VR games and in 2016 released The Lab a collection of VR minigames 49 Valve recognized that many players wanted a more ambitious VR AAA game and began exploring the development of a major VR game 49 They developed several prototypes with three further VR projects under development by 2017 50 51 Finding that the portal systems of their puzzle series Portal were disorienting in VR they settled on Half Life 48 Walker said that Half Life 3 had been a terrifyingly daunting prospect and the team saw VR as a way to return to the series 48 Full development of a VR Half Life game started around late 2016 with the largest team in Valve s history 52 53 Valve acquired the 3D audio software developer Impulsonic in January 2017 54 In April 2018 Valve acquired the independent developer Campo Santo known for the 2016 adventure game Firewatch Campo Santo planned to develop its own games under Valve though they initially helped develop Half Life Alyx 55 56 In November 2018 Valve released Artifact a digital collectible card game based on Dota 2 with design by Richard Garfield the creator of Magic The Gathering Artifact had unusual pay for mechanics to acquire new cards and did not draw a large playerbase losing 95 of players months after release 57 In April 2021 Valve abandoned efforts to reboot the project saying they had not found enough interested players to justify development 58 In June 2019 Valve released its second generation VR hardware the Valve Index 59 They also released Dota Underlords into early access an auto battler based on a Dota 2 community created mode Dota Auto Chess 60 In March 2020 Valve released Half Life Alyx a VR game 61 It received acclaim 62 and was described as VR s first killer app 63 64 65 66 Newell said in January 2021 that the success of Alyx created desire within the company to develop more games and that several were under development 67 Valve collaborated with Netflix for Dota Dragon s Blood an animated television series based on Dota which premiered in March 2021 68 In February 2022 Valve released the Steam Deck a portable game system that runs on SteamOS 69 In March 2023 Valve announced Counter Strike 2 It is expected to feature major technical improvements 70 71 needs update Structure nbsp Designer Robin Walker at Steam Dev Days 2014Initially Valve used a hierarchical structure more typical of other development firms driven by the nature of physical game releases through publishers that required tasks to be completed by deadlines 72 However as Valve became its own publisher via Steam it found the hierarchal structure was hindering progress 52 After completing Half Life 2 Valve transitioned to a flat organization outside of executive management Valve does not have bosses and uses an open allocation system 73 74 Valve s marketing manager Doug Lombardi said Nobody writes a design doc and hands it to somebody and says you go build this It s the teams that are coming up with the ideas and pushing in the directions that they want to take the product 75 This approach allows employees to work on whatever interests them but requires them to take ownership of their product and mistakes they may make according to Newell Newell recognized that this structure works well for some but that there are plenty of great developers for whom this is a terrible place to work 72 Although Valve has no bosses some employees hold more influence due to seniority or relationships De facto project leads became centralized conduits for organization and sharing information and decisions are made collectively Valve uses an Overwatch process to gather feedback from senior members which teams may use or ignore 41 The success of Steam means that Valve is not dependent on the success of its games 76 The lack of organization structure has led to project cancellations as it can be difficult to convince other employees to work on them 77 78 79 In 2020 Valve acknowledged that this made it difficult to gather momentum and had slowed their output during the 2010s 80 Their VR projects and Half Life Alyx became a turning point setting short term studio wide goals to focus the company According to Walker We sort of had to collectively admit we were wrong on the premise that you will be happiest if you work on something you personally want to work on the most 52 In January 2023 People Make Games released a report on Valve s corporate structure and culture based on interviews with several current and former employees They found that Valve s flat structure and stack ranking compensation system created a poor release record and a lack of employee diversity 76 81 Valve time Valve Time redirects here For timing of the opening and closing of valves see Valve timing 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 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 82 and using it in announcements about such delays 83 84 Valve ascribes delays to their mentality of team driven initiatives over corporate deadlines 85 Playtesting Valve playtests its games extensively starting from the beginning of development 86 and iterates based on the results 41 Its website states We believe that all game designers are in a sense experimental psychologists 41 The Valve writer Chet Faliszek said he initially blamed testers when they failed to engage with designs as expected but changed his mind when multiple testers had the same problem By the third or fourth time all of a sudden you re realizing I m an idiot This is pretty obvious this doesn t work It s not their fault it s our fault 86 He gave an example from the development of Left 4 Dead wherein a texture change caused every tester to miss a ladder and become stuck 86 Walker said playtesting helped Valve maximize the experience for players For example when something incredibly cool occurs by chance during a playtest the developers attempt to have it occur for every player 87 Newell contrasted this approach to that of Warren Spector whose open ended games are designed to be replayed with different outcomes You spend all of this time to build stuff that most players will never ever ever see If only one per cent of your customers see this cool thing that takes five per cent of your development budget that s not a good use of resources 87 TechnologyInitial release Name Type1998 GoldSrc Game engine2004 Source2015 Source 2ProductsGames Main article List of Valve games Valve is the main developer and publisher of the single player Half Life and Portal games and the multiplayer games Counter Strike Team Fortress 2 Dota 2 Day of Defeat and Artifact Valve also published the multiplayer game Left 4 Dead and developed and published Left 4 Dead 2 Unreleased and canceled Valve games include the fantasy role playing game Prospero and numerous Half Life projects including Episode Three 88 Valve worked with Arkane Studios on The Crossing which was canceled in May 2009 89 Steam Main article Steam service Valve announced Steam its digital distribution service at the 2002 Game Developers Conference 90 91 It was launched in September 2003 and was first used to deliver patches and other updates to Valve s online games 92 93 On August 1 2012 Valve announced revisions to the Steam Subscriber Agreement SSA to prohibit class action lawsuits by users against the service provider 94 95 By July 2014 there were over 3 400 games available on Steam with over 150 million registered accounts by January 2018 96 97 Alongside these changes to the SSA the company also declared publicly the incorporation of Valve S a r l a subsidiary based in Luxembourg 94 95 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 central geographic location most major partners are accessible 50 within driving distance 98 Valve S a r l was used to sell games to UK users to avoid paying the full 20 value added tax VAT 99 The tax loophole was expected to close on January 1 2015 100 In December 2015 the French consumer group UFC Que Choisir initiated a lawsuit against Valve for several of their Steam policies that conflict or run afoul of French law One of the reasons was for using the tax loophole 101 Valve S a r l ceased business on January 1 2017 with the main company taking over EU sales again 102 In August 2017 Valve announced that Steam had reached over 67 million monthly and 33 million daily active users on the platform 103 Steam Machine Main article Steam Machine hardware platform Newell has been critical of the direction that Microsoft has taken with making Windows a closed architecture similar to Apple s products and has stated that he believes that the changes made in Windows 8 are a catastrophe for everyone in the personal computer space 104 Newell identified the open source Linux platform as an ideal platform for Steam and said the only thing holding back its adoption is the lack of games 104 In 2012 Valve announced that they were working on a console PC hybrid for the living room dubbed by media as the Steam Box 105 106 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 107 as well as their unique game controller 8 In May 2014 Valve announced that the company s own SteamOS powered Steam Machine would be delayed until 2015 due to problems with the game controller 108 In 2015 Alienware ZOTAC and CyberPowerPC launched their versions of the Steam Machine By June 2016 fewer than half a million had been sold 109 While the Steam Machine line has been effectively canceled Valve continued to manufacture and sell Steam Controllers until late November 2019 110 and publishes both mobile apps and software for the Steam Link allowing in home streaming Valve Index and virtual reality At the Game Developers Conference in March 2015 Valve and Taiwanese electronics company HTC unveiled SteamVR and the HTC Vive a virtual reality platform and a virtual reality headset The platform would be distinguished by its Lighthouse motion tracking system where sensors on the headset and its included motion controllers read the position of two base station devices mounted in the play area This would allow for room scale VR experiences where the player would not be required to remain in a stationary position in front of a camera and would be able to freely walk around the space 111 112 In November 2017 Microsoft added beta support for the SteamVR service for Windows Mixed Reality headsets 113 114 In June 2019 Valve released their own VR headset known as the Valve Index positioned as a higher end device with wider field of view and higher refresh rate They were accompanied by updated motion controllers which are strapped against the user s palms and have sensors for detecting input pressure and individual fingers 115 116 117 Steam Deck Main article Steam Deck Announced in July 2021 the Steam Deck is a hybrid game console similar to the Nintendo Switch It is primarily a handheld device that supports playing of Steam games but through a separate dock unit the console can output to an external monitor and use external power networking and USB accessories connected to the dock The hardware is based on customized AMD Zen 2 and RDNA 2 chipsets Units started shipping in February 2022 Other projects PowerPlay PowerPlay was a technological initiative headed by Valve and Cisco Systems to decrease the latency for online games announced in January 2000 118 It was described as a set of protocols and deployment standards at the router level to improve performance It was claimed that a player with 1000 ms ping was able to play against another player on a LAN connection with no noticeable disadvantage 119 Initially the protocol was to be released with PowerPlay 1 0 focusing on quality of service QoS and later a revision PowerPlay 2 0 that would focus on functionality Cisco and Valve intended to deliver a single dial up service in Q1 2000 in the United States with a 30 day free trial with a bundled copy of Team Fortress modified to support PowerPlay 120 The standard was to involve purchasing PowerPlay approved Cisco hardware and infrastructure that had adequate bandwidth and QoS standards that prioritize PowerPlay gaming packets at all others expense Newell conceded that Internet service providers ISPs would bear the brunt of this expense The ISPs are going to need to spend a fair amount of money to be compliant with PowerPlay But how they get that back is up to them Some will have a tiered service and some will just try to recoup their investment through reduced customer churn and customer acquisition 121 Despite never deploying the dial up plan featuring PowerPlay 1 0 Valve announced in January 2001 that the standard had indeed been finalized 119 12 months after its announcement PowerPlay was abandoned citation needed Pipeline In July 2013 Valve announced Pipeline an intern project consisting of ten high school students working together to learn how to create video game content 122 Pipeline serves to discuss and answer questions that teenagers often ask about the video game industry 123 and see if it is possible to train a group of teenagers with minimal work experience to work for a company like Valve 123 The latter purpose breaks Valve s tradition of employing experienced developers as the company is not good at teaching people straight out of school 123 Legal disputesValve Corporation v Vivendi Universal Games Between 2002 and 2005 Valve was involved in a complex legal dispute with its publisher Vivendi Universal Games under Vivendi s brand Sierra Entertainment Valve had entered into a publishing agreement with Sierra to release Half Life and subsequent games in 1997 with the contract giving Sierra some intellectual property IP rights to Valve s games After Valve began development of Half Life 2 it agreed a new contract with Sierra in 2001 removing these rights from Sierra and giving Valve some rights for digital distribution 124 Internally Valve started work on Steam as a means to digitally distribute these games and first revealed this project at the March 2002 Game Developers Conference 124 By August 2002 Valve had found that Sierra was distributing copies of their games to Internet cafes against the terms of their contracts and filed a lawsuit against Sierra and Vivendi In addition to claims of copyright infringement Valve asserted that Sierra breached contract by withholding royalties and delaying the release of Counter Strike Condition Zero until after the holiday season Vivendi and Sierra countersued stating that Valve had misrepresented their position in the revised 2001 contract since they had been working on Steam at that point as a means to circumvent the publishing agreement Vivendi sought intellectual property rights to Half Life and a ruling preventing Valve from using Steam to distribute Half Life 2 124 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 The ruling stated that Vivendi Universal and its affiliates including Sierra were not authorized to distribute Valve games either directly or indirectly through cyber cafes 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 125 Valve posted on the Steam website that the companies had come to a settlement in court on April 29 2005 126 Electronic Arts announced on July 18 2005 that they would partner with Valve in a multi year deal to distribute their games replacing Vivendi Universal 127 As a result of the trial the arbitrator also awarded Valve 2 391 932 128 Valve Corporation v Activision Blizzard 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 128 129 Dota intellectual property ownership Defense of the Ancients DotA was a landmark mod first released in 2003 that created the basis of the genre of multiplayer online battle arena MOBA It was originally developed by Kyle Sommer who goes by the alias Eul within Blizzard Entertainment s Warcraft III Reign of Chaos via its world editor and spawned several similar efforts notably DotA Allstars While there had been several that contributed to DotA Allstars the project was managed primarily by Steve Guinsoo Feak and later by IceFrog IceFrog was eventually hired by Valve in 2009 with the rights to the DotA intellectual property being sold to Valve the following year Eul was also hired into Valve by 2010 130 Valve then subsequently filed trademarks towards a sequel to DotA titled Dota 2 DotA Allstars LLC a group of former contributors to the DotA Allstars project filed an opposing trademark in August 2010 to contest Valve s claim it owned the property rights 131 DotA Allstars LLC was eventually acquired by Blizzard to start development of Blizzard All Stars Blizzard took over the trademark challenge The United States Patent amp Trademark Office initially ruled in Valve s favor By this point Riot Games had hired Guinsoo to help develop their own MOBA League of Legends As with IceFrog Feak transferred his rights to the Dota property to Riot who in turn sold those to Blizzard Blizzard filed a lawsuit against Valve to challenge Valve s ownership pitting the rights assigned through IceFrog to Guinsoo at odds 132 The case Blizzard Entertainment v Valve Corporation was settled out of court in May 2012 Valve retained the right to use Dota commercially while Blizzard reserved the right for fans to use Dota non commercially 133 Blizzard changed the names of its own projects to remove the Dota term and renamed Blizzard All Stars as Heroes of the Storm Valve s Dota 2 was released in 2013 134 In 2014 mobile developers Lilith and uCool released their games Dota Legends and Heroes Charge respectively Both were influenced by Dota and the sequels In 2017 Valve and Blizzard took joint action against these companies citing copyright issues related to the Dota names uCool argued that the Dota games were a collective work and could not be copyrighted by anyone in particular but the presiding judge Charles R Breyer felt that due to the trio s actions as maintainers of the Dota mods they had a rightful copyright claim to this Separately Lilith and uCool argued that Eul had in a forum post from September 2004 assigned an open source copyright license to Dota which would make Valve and Blizzard s copyright claims void The case was later heard by a jury 130 ACCC v Valve Corporation The Australian Competition amp Consumer Commission ACCC announced it was taking action against Valve in 2014 On March 29 2016 Valve was found guilty of breaching Australian consumer law because 135 136 Valve claimed consumers were not entitled to a refund for digitally downloaded games purchased from Valve via the Steam website or Steam Client in any circumstances Valve had excluded statutory guarantees and or warranties that goods would be of acceptable quality and Valve had restricted or modified statutory guarantees and or warranties of acceptable quality During the prosecution of this case Valve implemented a refund policy for Steam purchases but the case still reviewed Valve s actions prior to the onset of the lawsuit The court overseeing the case sided with the ACCC in assigning a A 3 million about US 2 1 million fine against Valve in December 2016 as well as requiring Valve to inform Australian consumers of their rights when purchasing games from Steam 137 Valve appealed the court s determination that it engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct and made false or misleading representations about consumer guarantees as well as seeking to appeal the fine but the Australian higher courts rejected the appeals in December 2017 138 In January 2018 Valve filed for a special leave of the court s decision appealing to the High Court of Australia 139 The High Court dismissed this claim in April 2018 asserting that Valve still was liable under Australian law since it sold products directly to its citizens 140 UFC Que Choisir v Valve Corporation Consumer rights group UFC Que Choisir based in France filed a lawsuit against Valve in December 2015 claiming users should be able to resell their software 141 142 The High Court of Paris ruled in favor of UFC Que Choisir in September 2019 stating that Valve must allow the resale of Steam games Valve stated it will appeal the decision 143 Skins gambling Main article Skin gambling Valve was named as a defendant in two lawsuits in June and July 2016 related to third party gambling sites that use the Steamworks API to allow betting with the virtual currency of cosmetic weapon replacement textures better known as skins from Counter Strike Global Offensive which through these sites can be converted from or to real world money Both suits assert Valve aiding in underaged gambling 144 Valve subsequently stated it has no commercial ties with these sites and that it would demand these sites cease their use of the Steamworks API as they violate the authorized use policies 145 146 In October 2016 the Washington State Gambling Commission required Valve to stop the use of virtual skins for gambling on Steam stating they would face legal repercussions if they failed to co operate 147 On October 17 2016 Valve sent a letter to the Washington State Gambling Commission stating that they had no business relationship with such gambling sites asserting that they come into existence operate and go out of existence without their knowledge and consent adding that they were not aware of any such law that Steam or any of their games were violating 148 Anti competitive practices In February 2017 the European Commission began investigating Valve and five other publishers Bandai Namco Entertainment Capcom Focus Home Interactive Koch Media and ZeniMax Media for anti competitive practices specifically the use of geo blocking through the Steam storefront and Steam product keys to prevent access to software to citizens of certain countries Such practices would be against the Digital Single Market initiative by the European Union 149 While the other five companies named are in stages of settling with the EU as of August 2019 Valve has stated it plans to fight the charges asserting that geo blocking affects less than 3 of its games and that it had turned off such geo blocking within the EU in 2015 150 Discrimination lawsuit In 2016 a former employee filed a suit against Valve alleging poor working conditions and harassment 151 The jury ruled in favor of Valve in 2017 152 References Bloomberg Billionaires Index 257 Gabe Newell Bloomberg Archived from the original on February 2 2021 Retrieved February 10 2021 Chiang Oliver February 9 2011 The Master of Online Mayhem Forbes Archived from the original on March 7 2017 Retrieved March 6 2017 Chalk Andy October 18 2016 Valve denies wrongdoing in skin gambling legal rumblings no factual or legal support for these accusations PC Gamer Archived from the original on October 18 2016 Retrieved October 18 2016 Privacy Policy Agreement Valve Archived from the original on December 31 2016 Retrieved January 1 2017 Payment processing related to Content and Services and or physical goods purchased on Steam is performed by either Valve Corporation directly or by Valve s fully owned subsidiary Valve GmbH on behalf of Valve Corporation depending on the type of payment method used a b c d e f g h Dunn Jeff October 4 2013 Full Steam ahead The History of Valve GamesRadar Archived from the original on October 16 2016 Retrieved May 13 2019 Gabe Newell made Windows a viable gaming platform and Linux is next Extreme Tech Archived from the original on December 17 2020 Retrieved March 8 2021 GDC 2002 Valve Steams IGN IGN March 22 2002 Archived from the original on April 11 2020 Retrieved January 24 2020 a b Steam Message Steam Valve August 24 2007 Archived from the original on October 15 2008 Retrieved November 8 2008 it was exactly eleven years ago that Valve was born Towns William R March 9 2005 Valve Corporation v ValveNET Inc ValveNET Inc Charles Morrin Case No D2005 0038 WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center World Intellectual Property Organization Archived from the original on October 15 2008 Retrieved November 8 2008 Keefer John March 31 2006 GameSpy Retro Developer Origins Page 16 of 19 GameSpy Archived from the original on June 9 2007 a b c The Final Hours of Half Life The id visit GameSpot Archived from the original on February 23 2011 Retrieved September 12 2006 Walker John November 21 2007 RPS Exclusive Gabe Newell Interview Rock Paper Shotgun Archived from the original on June 9 2019 Retrieved May 13 2019 The Final Hours of Half Life Reassembling the Pieces GameSpot Archived from the original on February 25 2011 Retrieved September 14 2006 Green Jeff February 1 1999 Half Life Computer Gaming World Archived from the original on February 9 2002 Retrieved April 14 2010 Half Life Review GameSpot Archived from the original on October 31 2013 Retrieved April 25 2007 Rorie Matthew May 18 2007 Greatest Games of All Time Half Life GameSpot Archived from the original on January 19 2015 Retrieved March 31 2016 Half Life 1 Top Shooters IGN September 13 2013 Archived from the original on February 28 2014 Retrieved February 23 2014 Osborn Alex August 28 2017 Gearbox CEO I Don t Know That We Could or Should Make Half Life 2 Episode 3 IGN Unfiltered ign com Archived from the original on July 5 2018 Retrieved July 5 2018 Team Fortress Full Speed Ahead GameSpot Archived from the original on March 23 2014 Retrieved June 2 2016 a b Geoff Keighley The Final Hours of Half Life 2 GameSpot Archived from the original on December 26 2019 Retrieved November 30 2019 a b Levy Nat August 3 2016 Valve leases nine floors in planned skyscraper more than doubling its headquarters size GeekWire Archived from the original on August 4 2016 Retrieved August 3 2016 Chiang Oliver February 28 2011 The Master of Online Mayhem Forbes Archived from the original on February 13 2011 Case Loyd March 22 2002 Valve Changes Online Gaming Rules PC Magazine Archived from the original on March 2 2016 Retrieved February 14 2016 Lee James April 30 2008 The Last of the Independents GamesIndustry biz Archived from the original on August 15 2017 Retrieved July 9 2010 Chiang Oliver The Master of Online Mayhem Forbes Archived from the original on February 13 2011 Retrieved February 14 2011 Suddath Claire April 25 2012 What Makes Valve Software the Best Office Ever Bloomberg Archived from the original on August 15 2012 Retrieved May 1 2022 Suddath Claire April 27 2012 Why ThereAre No Bosses At Valve Bloomberg Archived from the original on September 4 2013 Retrieved May 1 2022 Dobson Jason May 25 2006 Half Life 2 Episode One Dated Trilogy Confirmed Game Developer Archived from the original on May 16 2022 Retrieved May 1 2022 Dudley Breir April 17 2011 Backstory to blockbuster game Portal 2 is a real Cinderella tale The Seattle Times Archived from the original on April 20 2011 Retrieved May 1 2022 Valve Acquires Turtle Rock Studios Press release Valve January 10 2008 Archived from the original on October 15 2008 Retrieved January 10 2008 Robinson Martin February 11 2014 Why Turtle Rock left Valve Eurogamer Archived from the original on May 2 2022 Retrieved May 1 2022 Bramwell Tom March 18 2010 Turtle Rock Studios reforms Eurogamer Archived from the original on May 2 2022 Retrieved May 1 2022 a b Chiang Oliver February 9 2011 The Master of Online Mayhem Forbes Archived from the original on February 13 2011 Retrieved October 13 2016 Biessener Adam October 13 2010 Valve s New Game Announced Detailed Dota 2 Game Informer Archived from the original on October 16 2010 Retrieved October 8 2012 Reilly Jim August 1 2011 Valve Goes Big with Dota 2 Tournament IGN Archived from the original on November 9 2012 Hillier Brenna April 18 2011 No more potatoes Portal 2 available right now on Steam VG247 Archived from the original on April 20 2011 Retrieved May 1 2022 Remo Chris September 20 2010 Synthesizing Portal 2 Game Developer Archived from the original on September 8 2012 Retrieved May 1 2022 Hing David December 17 2012 Valve acquires or hires Star Filled Studios bit gamer net Bit tech net Archived from the original on July 14 2013 Retrieved August 31 2013 Reilly Luke August 7 2013 Valve s San Francisco Remote Office Shut Down IGN Archived from the original on September 2 2013 LambdaGeneration 2 0 Coming Soon Lambda Generation February 6 2013 Archived from the original on May 1 2013 Retrieved August 31 2013 a b c d e f g Keighley Geoff 2020 The Final Hours of Half Life Alyx Steam Cooper Ryan June 4 2019 How capitalism killed one of the best video game studios The Week Archived from the original on June 7 2019 Retrieved June 7 2019 Chalk Andy July 9 2020 At least 5 Half Life projects were cancelled before Alyx including Half Life 3 PC Gamer Archived from the original on July 11 2020 Retrieved July 9 2020 Skrebels Joe July 9 2020 Details of Multiple Cancelled Valve Projects Revealed Including Half Life 3 IGN Archived from the original on July 13 2020 Retrieved July 9 2020 Whatever happened to Half Life 3 The complete saga so far PCGamesN November 19 2018 Archived from the original on October 21 2019 Retrieved November 19 2018 Langley Hugh March 3 2015 Valve just announced its plans for Steam Machines and Source 2 Tech Radar Archived from the original on March 6 2015 Retrieved March 3 2015 Macy Seth September 9 2015 Dota 2 Now Valve s First Ever Source 2 Game IGN Archived from the original on September 10 2015 Retrieved September 9 2015 a b c Keighley Geoff November 21 2019 The Final Hours of Half Life Alyx Archived from the original on November 21 2019 Retrieved November 21 2019 via YouTube a b Reeves Ben Valve On Why Half Life Alyx Needed To Be In VR Game Informer Archived from the original on March 4 2020 Retrieved March 4 2020 Campbell Colin February 10 2017 Valve is working on three full VR games Polygon Archived from the original on March 2 2017 Retrieved November 21 2019 Hollister Sean Valve of Half Life and Portal is making 3 full VR games CNET Archived from the original on March 10 2018 Retrieved November 21 2019 a b c Machkovech Sam July 9 2020 Valve secrets spill over including Half Life 3 in new Steam documentary app Ars Technica Archived from the original on July 19 2020 Retrieved July 10 2020 Keighley Geoff November 21 2019 The Final Hours of Half Life Alyx Archived from the original on November 21 2019 Retrieved November 21 2019 via YouTube Feltham Jamie January 13 2017 Sounds Good Valve Acquires 3D Audio Company Impulsonic UploadVR Archived from the original on February 3 2020 Retrieved February 3 2020 Alexander Julia April 21 2018 Valve acquires Firewatch developer Campo Santo Polygon Archived from the original on December 3 2019 Retrieved April 21 2018 Kelly Andy Livingston Christopher November 21 2019 12 big things we learned about Half Life Alyx PC Gamer Archived from the original on November 23 2019 Retrieved March 27 2020 Skrebels Joe March 18 2020 Gabe Newell Artifact Was a Giant Disappointment IGN Archived from the original on March 19 2020 Retrieved March 18 2020 Machkovech Sam April 3 2021 Valve scraps revamped Artifact dumps free unfinished 2 0 version on Steam Ars Technica Archived from the original on May 17 2021 Retrieved May 18 2021 Hollister Sean April 30 2019 Valve s Index VR headset will officially cost 999 and here s what it s all about The Verge Archived from the original on April 26 2022 Retrieved June 5 2019 Gilliam Ryan June 21 2019 Dota Underlords feels like a clone of Auto Chess Polygon Archived from the original on June 30 2019 Retrieved February 3 2020 Marks Tom March 23 2020 Valve Explains Why Half Life 2 Episode 3 Was Never Made IGN Archived from the original on March 23 2020 Retrieved March 23 2020 Half Life Alyx for PC Reviews Metacritic Archived from the original on February 16 2020 Retrieved April 2 2020 Carbotte Kevin March 23 2020 Half Life Alyx Gameplay Review Almost Every VR Headset Tested Tom s Hardware Retrieved March 24 2020 Robinson Andrew March 23 2020 Review Half Life Alyx is VR s stunning killer app VGC Archived from the original on March 24 2020 Retrieved March 24 2020 Oloman Jordan March 23 2020 Half Life Alyx is a watershed moment for virtual reality TechRadar TechRadar Archived from the original on March 24 2020 Retrieved May 1 2022 CES 2020 Teslasuit Will Unveil New Haptic VR Gloves Tech Times December 27 2019 Archived from the original on March 25 2020 Retrieved May 1 2022 Ivan Tom January 20 2021 Gabe Newell says Valve has multiple games in development and wants to do more single player Video Games Chronicle Archived from the original on January 20 2021 Retrieved January 20 2021 Plunkett Luke February 16 2021 Valve amp Netflix Are Making A DOTA Anime Kotaku Archived from the original on February 17 2021 Retrieved February 16 2021 Fenlon Wes February 25 2022 Steam Deck review PC Gamer Archived from the original on March 14 2022 Retrieved March 14 2022 Stedman Alex March 22 2023 Counter Strike 2 Revealed Out of Nowhere Release Window Confirmed IGN Archived from the original on March 22 2023 Retrieved March 22 2023 Counter Strike 2 Limited Test FAQ Archived from the original on March 22 2023 Retrieved March 22 2023 a b Wawro Alex February 17 2017 Gabe Newell discusses the downsides of working at Valve Game Developer Archived from the original on February 18 2017 Retrieved February 17 2017 Suddath Claire April 25 2012 What Makes Valve Software the Best Office Ever Bloomberg Archived from the original on August 15 2012 Suddath Claire April 27 2012 Why There Are No Bosses At Valve Bloomberg Archived from the original on September 4 2013 Retrieved May 1 2022 Farrelly Steve March 28 2011 AusGamers Valve Software 2011 Video Interview AusGamers Archived from the original on July 30 2022 Retrieved July 30 2022 a b Macgregor Jody January 27 2023 Valve s unusual corporate structure causes its problems report suggests PC Gamer Retrieved September 24 2023 Petitte Omri February 13 2013 Valve lays off several employees in hardware mobile teams Updated PC Gamer Archived from the original on February 20 2022 Retrieved May 1 2022 Varoufakis Yanis August 3 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 Archived from the original on August 7 2012 Retrieved August 12 2012 Hern Alex August 3 2012 Valve Software free marketeer s dream or nightmare New Statesman Archived from the original on August 5 2012 Retrieved May 1 2022 Says Germinalconsequence July 10 2020 Half Life Alyx Helped Change Valve s Approach To Development Kotaku Australia Archived from the original on July 19 2020 Retrieved July 19 2020 Benfell Grace January 26 2023 New Report Claims Valve s Structure And Work Culture Is Hostile To Diversity GameSpot Retrieved September 24 2023 Valve Time Valve Archived from the original on June 18 2010 Retrieved June 9 2010 Kohler Chris June 9 2010 Valve Delays Portal 2 to 2011 Wired Archived from the original on June 12 2010 Retrieved May 1 2022 de Matos Xav November 18 2010 Portal 2 Delayed to The Week of April 18 Shacknews Archived from the original on November 20 2010 Retrieved May 1 2022 Remo Chris February 24 2010 Valve s Faliszek Team Self Determination Drives Left 4 Dead 2 DLC Strategy Game Developer Archived from the original on May 9 2010 Retrieved May 1 2022 a b c Remo Chris August 7 2008 Valve s Faliszek Playtesters Aren t Idiots It s You Game Developer Archived from the original on May 2 2022 Retrieved May 1 2022 a b Bramwell Tom September 8 2007 Opening the Valve Eurogamer Retrieved December 15 2023 Half Life 2 Raising the Bar Prima Games 2004 p 10 ISBN 0 7615 4364 3 O Conner Alice May 15 2009 Arkane and Valve s The Crossing on Hold Shacknews Archived from the original on May 9 2013 Retrieved May 1 2022 Full Steam ahead The History of Valve gamesradar Archived from the original on October 16 2016 Retrieved February 26 2018 GDC 2002 Valve unveils Steam GameSpot March 22 2002 Archived from the original on May 2 2022 Retrieved May 1 2022 The 13 year evolution of Steam pcgamer Archived from the original on August 13 2017 Retrieved February 26 2018 Burnes Andrew September 10 2003 Steam Client Delayed IGN Archived from the original on March 2 2018 Retrieved March 1 2018 a b Steam s Sub Agreement Prohibits Class Action Lawsuits Rock Paper Shotgun August 1 2012 Archived from the original on August 3 2012 Retrieved August 3 2012 a b Updated Steam Subscriber Agreement Valve August 1 2012 Archived from the original on August 3 2012 Retrieved August 3 2012 Steam has 75 million active users Valve announces at Dev Days Engadget January 15 2014 Archived from the original on July 19 2014 Retrieved May 1 2022 Supor Taylor August 3 2017 Valve reveals Steam s monthly active user count and game sales by region GeekWire Archived from the original on February 16 2018 Retrieved November 27 2017 Valve Software Latest Gaming Company to Set Up in Luxembourg Archived May 2 2014 at the Wayback Machine Chronicle lu September 4 2012 Retrieved on May 23 2014 Karmali Luke March 25 2014 Steam Amazon and iTunes Prices Could Rise in UK Archived May 2 2014 at the Wayback Machine IGN Retrieved on May 23 2014 UK closing tax loophole on Steam game downloads MCV March 25 2014 Archived from the original on May 2 2022 Retrieved May 1 2022 Nutt Christian December 17 2015 French consumer group sues Valve over Steam policies Game Developer Archived from the original on December 18 2015 Retrieved May 1 2022 Steam Subscriber Agreement Valve Archived from the original on January 1 2017 Retrieved January 1 2017 This Agreement was last updated on January 1st 2017 Revision Date If you were a Subscriber before the Revision Date it replaces your existing agreement with Valve or Valve SARL on the day that you explicitly accept it Valve reveals Steam s monthly active user count and game sales by region GeekWire August 3 2017 Archived from the original on February 16 2018 Retrieved August 4 2017 a b Crabtree Dan July 25 2012 Gabe Newell Windows 8 Is Kind of a Catastrophe IGN Archived from the original on May 2 2022 Retrieved May 1 2022 Davies Marsh December 9 2012 Valve confirms Steam Box a very controlled PC for the living room PC Gamer Archived from the original on March 13 2013 Retrieved April 21 2013 Newman Jared March 18 2013 Valve s Steam Box The plot thickens for PC based game consoles PC World Archived from the original on April 27 2013 Retrieved May 1 2022 Kohler Chris September 23 2013 Valve Continues Its War on Game Consoles With Steam Operating System Wired Archived from the original on September 25 2013 Retrieved May 1 2022 Vaughn Nichols Steven J May 28 2014 Valve Steam Machines delayed until 2015 ZDNet Archived from the original on June 1 2014 Retrieved June 3 2014 Wilde Tyler April 2 2018 What happened to Steam Machines PC Gamer Archived from the original on May 7 2018 Retrieved May 7 2018 Hollister Sean November 26 2019 Pour one out for the Steam Controller sold out forever after 5 fire sale The Verge Archived from the original on December 14 2019 Retrieved December 13 2019 Orland Kyle March 5 2015 Hands on Valve HTC Vive opens up the virtual reality experience Ars Technica Archived from the original on November 5 2019 Retrieved November 21 2019 Machkovech Sam June 12 2015 SteamVR The room scale VR world that feels like an IMAX in your house Ars Technica Archived from the original on July 16 2019 Retrieved November 21 2019 Shilov Anton Windows Mixed Reality Headsets Gain SteamVR Support a Library of VR Games Archived from the original on December 28 2017 Retrieved December 5 2017 SteamVR games available in Windows Mixed Reality on November 15th The Verge Archived from the original on January 3 2018 Retrieved November 11 2017 Higham Michael Valve Index Impressions A Necessary But Incremental Step For PC VR GameSpot Archived from the original on May 14 2022 Retrieved June 9 2019 Robertson Adi May 28 2019 The Valve Index might have the most fun VR controllers I ve ever tried The Verge Archived from the original on August 3 2019 Retrieved November 21 2019 Robertson Adi June 22 2018 Valve is shipping new Knuckles VR controllers to developers with a Portal themed demo Archived from the original on May 15 2019 Retrieved May 13 2019 Valve Cisco and a Host of PC Developers Unveil PowerPlay IGN January 7 2000 Archived from the original on July 8 2015 a b PowerPlay and interview Planetfortress 2000 Archived from the original on July 17 2012 Retrieved November 17 2012 Voodoo Extreme Archived from the original on August 17 2000 Retrieved November 17 2012 PowerPlay EuroGamer January 19 2000 Archived from the original on September 24 2015 Retrieved November 17 2012 Pipeline About Us Valve Archived from the original on August 31 2013 Retrieved September 13 2013 a b c Pipeline Home Valve Archived from the original on August 20 2014 Retrieved August 31 2013 a b c Feldman Curt December 15 2004 Valve vs Vivendi Universal dogfight heats up in US District Court GameSpot Archived from the original on May 10 2022 Retrieved December 9 2020 Feldman Curt September 20 2004 Valve vs Vivendi Universal dogfight heats up in US District Court GameSpot Archived from the original on September 8 2008 Retrieved November 8 2008 Valve and Vivendi Universal Games Settle Lawsuit Press release Valve April 29 2005 Archived from the original on October 15 2008 Retrieved November 8 2008 EA and Valve Team Up to Deliver Half Life to Gamers Worldwide Electronic Arts Inc July 18 2005 Archived from the original on February 16 2007 Retrieved November 8 2008 a b It s Ugly Valve Sues Activision Activision Threatens to Sue Valve gamepolitics com April 30 2009 Archived from the original on May 2 2009 Retrieved May 1 2009 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 Valve Corporation v Activision Blizzard Inc United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit July 30 2010 Archived from the original on February 9 2015 a b Orland Kyle May 17 2017 Does Valve really own Dota A jury will decide Ars Technica Archived from the original on May 21 2017 Retrieved May 22 2017 Augustine Josh August 17 2010 Riot Games dev counter files DotA trademark PC Gamer Archived from the original on February 3 2013 Retrieved May 1 2022 Plunkett Luke February 10 2012 Blizzard and Valve go to War Over DOTA Name Kotaku Archived from the original on February 11 2012 Retrieved May 1 2022 Reilly Jim May 11 2012 Valve Blizzard Reach DOTA Trademark Agreement Game Informer Archived from the original on July 24 2012 Narcisse Evan October 17 2013 Blizzard s Diablo Starcraft WoW Crossover Has a New Name Kotaku Archived from the original on October 20 2013 Wilkins Georgia March 29 2016 Online games giant Valve found to have breached Australian consumer law Sydney Morning Herald Archived from the original on September 13 2016 Retrieved December 3 2016 Pearce Rohan March 29 2016 ACCC chalks up court win against Valve Software Computerworld International Data Corporation Archived from the original on December 23 2016 Retrieved December 3 2016 Walker Alex December 23 2016 Australian Court Fines Valve 2 1 Million Over Refund Policy Kotaku Archived from the original on December 24 2016 Retrieved December 25 2016 Jones Ali December 22 2017 Australian courts say Valve must pay a 3 million fine for misleading consumers PCGamesN Archived from the original on December 28 2017 Retrieved December 27 2017 Makuch Eddie January 22 2018 Ordered To Pay 3 Million Fine Valve Files Another Appeal In Australia GameSpot Archived from the original on January 23 2018 Retrieved January 22 2018 Makuch Eddie April 19 2018 Valve Loses Appeal For 3 Million Fine In Australia GameSpot Archived from the original on April 20 2018 Retrieved April 19 2018 Hayward Andrew December 21 2015 Valve sued by French group over right to resell Steam games Stuff Archived from the original on October 9 2016 Retrieved December 3 2016 Sayer Peter December 18 2015 Valve slapped with lawsuit over unfair Steam game resale ban PC World International Data Group Archived from the original on October 7 2016 Retrieved May 1 2022 Campbell Colin September 19 2019 French court rules that Steam s ban on reselling used games is contrary to European law Polygon Archived from the original on December 19 2019 Retrieved September 19 2019 Sarkar Samit July 11 2016 How do Counter Strike Global Offensive skins work Polygon Archived from the original on July 11 2016 Retrieved July 11 2016 Francis Bryant July 13 2016 Valve says it will start cracking down on third party gambling sites Game Developer Archived from the original on July 15 2016 Retrieved May 1 2022 News In Game Item Trading Update Steam Store Archived from the original on July 15 2016 Retrieved July 15 2016 McAloon Alissa October 5 2016 Washington state authority orders Valve to stop allowing CS GO skin gambling Gamasutra Archived from the original on October 6 2016 Retrieved May 1 2022 Grosso Robert October 17 2016 Update Valve to Respond to Washington Gambling Commission After Given Deadline techraptor net Archived from the original on November 14 2016 Retrieved May 1 2022 Handrahan Matthew February 2 2017 Valve under investigation by European Commission for Steam geo blocking GamesIndustry biz Archived from the original on February 2 2017 Retrieved February 2 2017 Chee Foo Yun August 29 2019 Exclusive Valve to fight EU antitrust charges five videogame publishers to settle sources Reuters Archived from the original on August 29 2019 Retrieved August 29 2019 Chalk Andy May 24 2016 Former Valve employee files 3 1 million lawsuit over wrongful dismissal Updated PC Gamer Archived from the original on July 11 2020 Retrieved July 11 2020 Matulef Jeffrey May 25 2016 Former Valve employee is suing the company for 3 1m Eurogamer Archived from the original on May 2 2022 Retrieved May 1 2022 External links nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Valve Corporation Official website nbsp Portals nbsp Video games nbsp 1990s Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Valve Corporation amp oldid 1198591595, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.