Valve

Type:	Private
Founded:	Kirkland, Washington, USA (1996)
Founder(s):	Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington
Headquarters:	Bellevue, Washington, USA
Area served:	Worldwide
Key people:	Gabe Newell, co-founder and managing director
Industry:	Computer software, Interactive entertainment
Products:	Half-Life series Counter-Strike series Day of Defeat series Team Fortress series Source Steam Valve Anti-Cheat Portal Left 4 Dead
Revenue:	$70million USD (2007)
Employees:	225+
Website:	http://www.valvesoftware.com/

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

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

Half-Life's success was followed by developing mods, spin-offs, and sequels including Half-Life 2. Only two fully produced games, Half-Life and Half Life 2, have been released by Valve, along with a number of episodic, multiplayer, expansion, and campaign titles including Portal, Team Fortress Classic, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat.

On January 10, 2008, Valve Corporation announced that they had acquired Turtle Rock Studios, adding the Californian technology company to its portfolio.

Half-Life

Long-time Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington founded Valve on August 24th, 1996. After securing a license to the Quake engine (through the help of friend Michael Abrash of id Software) in late 1996, they commenced working on Half-Life. Originally planned for release in late 1997, Half-Life launched on November 19 1998. Valve acquired TF Software PTY Ltd. in May 1998, the makers of the Team Fortress mod for Quake with the intent to create a standalone Team Fortress 2 game. The Team Fortress Classic mod, essentially a port of the original Team Fortress mod for Quake, was released for Half-Life in 1999. Team Fortress 2 was released October 10 2007, bundled with Half-Life 2: Episode Two along with Portal.

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

Steam Content Delivery Service

See Steam

See also

• Valve anti-cheat
• Source engine

External links

• Official Homepage of Valve Corporation
• Official Steam Site
• Valve Corporation History