Valve Corporation is an American video game developer based in Bellevue, Washington, USA, made famous by its first product, Half-Life, which was released in November 1998. The company has followed Half-Life's success by developing mods, spin-offs, and sequels including Half-Life 2. Only two fully produced games, Half-Life, Half Life 2, have been released by Valve, along with a number of episodic, multiplayer, expansion, and campaign titles including: Half Life 2: Episode One, Half Life 2: Episode Two, Portal, Team Fortress Classic, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, Counter-Strike: Source, Day of Defeat, Day of Defeat: Source, Ricochet, Half-Life 2: Death Match, Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, Half-Life: Blue Shift and Deathmatch Classic. For other uses, see Corporation (disambiguation). ... Image File history File links Valve_logo. ... The term privately held company refers to ownership of a business company in two different ways—first, referring to ownership by non-governmental organizations; and second, referring to ownership of the companys stock by a relatively small number of holders who do not trade the stock publicly. ... Nickname: The Little City That Could Location of Kirkland within King County, Washington, and King County within Washington. ... Year 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar). ... Location of Bellevue within King County, Washington, and King County within Washington. ... Gabe Newell (born November 3, 1962) is the co-founder and managing director of game development company Valve Corporation. ... Managing director is the term used for the chief executive of many limited companies in the United Kingdom, Commonwealth and some other English speaking countries. ... Computer software (or simply software) refers to one or more computer programs held in the storage of a computer for some purpose. ... Half-Life For a quantity subject to exponential decay, the half-life is the time required for the quantity to fall to half of its initial value. ... Team Fortress Classic (TFC or TF 1. ... Team Fortress 2 (TF2) is a multiplayer team-based first-person shooter, developed by Valve Corporation as part of the game compilation The Orange Box. ... Counter-Strike (CS) is a popular team-based mod of Valves first-person shooter (FPS) Half-Life. ... For other uses, see DOD. Day of Defeat (DoD) is a popular team-based multiplayer World War II first-person shooter computer game of the European Theatre of World War II. // Day of Defeat is a 3D multiplayer shooter that simulates squad-level infantry combat between the adversaries of World... Deathmatch Classic with selectable player models Deathmatch Classic or DMC is a multiplayer mod of the popular first-person shooter, Half-Life. ... This article is about the 2007 computer game. ... Steam is a digital distribution, digital rights management, multiplayer and communications platform developed by Valve Corporation. ... Half-Life 2 (commonly abbreviated to HL2) is a science fiction first-person shooter computer game that is the sequel to Half-Life. ... Source engine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Valve Anti-Cheat, abbreviated to VAC, is a proprietary anti-cheat solution developed and maintained by Valve Corporation as a component of the Steam platform. ... Look up revenue in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... USD redirects here. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about work. ... A website (alternatively, Web site or web site) is a collection of Web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that is hosted on one or several Web server(s), usually accessible via the Internet, cell phone or a LAN. A Web page is a document, typically written in HTML... A video game developer is a software developer (a business or an individual) that creates video games. ... Location of Bellevue within King County, Washington, and King County within Washington. ... Half-Life For a quantity subject to exponential decay, the half-life is the time required for the quantity to fall to half of its initial value. ... Year 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... A spin-off (or spinoff) is a new organization or entity formed by a split from a larger one such as a new company formed from a university research group. ... For other uses, see Sequel (disambiguation). ... Half-Life 2 (commonly abbreviated to HL2) is a science fiction first-person shooter computer game that is the sequel to Half-Life. ...

Half-Life

Main article: Half-Life

Long-time Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington founded Valve on September 24th, 1996.^[2] 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 of 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 quake mod, was released for Half-Life in 1999. Team Fortress 2 was released 2007-10-10, bundled with Half-Life 2: Episode Two along with Portal. Half-Life For a quantity subject to exponential decay, the half-life is the time required for the quantity to fall to half of its initial value. ... Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44. ... Gabe Newell (born November 3, 1962) is the co-founder and managing director of game development company Valve Corporation. ... Mike Harrington was the co-founder and programmer of the computer game development company, Valve Software. ... September 24 is the 267th day of the year (268th in leap years). ... Year 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar). ... Zombies attacking the player at the starting of Episode 1, Mission 3: The Necropolis. ... Michael Abrash is a highly regarded technical writer, and one of the top optimization and 80x86 assembly language programmers, a reputation cemented by his 1990 book Unfortunately, the original 8086 processor, the focus of the book, was several generations behind the state of the art by the time the book... id Software (IPA: officially, though originally ) is an American computer game developer based in Mesquite, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. ... For the band, see 1997 (band). ... is the 323rd day of the year (324th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar). ... Team Fortress is a team and class based online multiplayer computer game modification based on id Softwares Quake. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Zombies attacking the player at the starting of Episode 1, Mission 3: The Necropolis. ... Team Fortress 2 (TF2) is a multiplayer team-based first-person shooter, developed by Valve Corporation as part of the game compilation The Orange Box. ... Team Fortress Classic (TFC or TF 1. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Team Fortress is a team and class based online multiplayer computer game modification based on id Softwares Quake. ... This article is about the year. ... Team Fortress 2 (TF2) is a multiplayer team-based first-person shooter, developed by Valve Corporation as part of the game compilation The Orange Box. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 283rd day of the year (284th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the 2007 computer game. ...

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. In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed (e. ... Counter-Strike (CS) is a popular team-based mod of Valves first-person shooter (FPS) Half-Life. ... For other uses, see DOD. Day of Defeat (DoD) is a popular team-based multiplayer World War II first-person shooter computer game of the European Theatre of World War II. // Day of Defeat is a 3D multiplayer shooter that simulates squad-level infantry combat between the adversaries of World...

Steam

Main article: Steam (content delivery)

Valve announced its Steam content delivery system in 2002. At the time, it looked to be a method of streamlining the patch process common in online computer games. Steam was later revealed as a replacement for much of the dated framework of WON and Half-Life multiplayer and also as a distribution system for entire games. Steam is a digital distribution, digital rights management, multiplayer and communications platform developed by Valve Corporation. ... Steam is a digital distribution, digital rights management, multiplayer and communications platform developed by Valve Corporation. ... Also see: 2002 (number). ... In computing, a patch is a small piece of software designed to update or fix problems with a computer program or its supporting data. ... A computer game is a game composed of a computer-controlled virtual universe that players interact with in order to achieve a defined goal or set of goals. ... World Opponent Network or WON was an online gaming service, created by Sierra Games as the Sierra Internet Gaming System (SIGS). ...

Between 2002 and 2005, Valve was involved in a complex legal showdown with its publisher, Vivendi Universal (under Vivendi's brand Sierra Entertainment). It officially began on August 14, 2002 when Valve sued Sierra for copyright infringement, alleging that the publisher illegally distributed copies of their games to Internet cafes. They later added claims of breach of contract, accusing their publisher of withholding royalties and delaying the release of Counter-Strike: Condition Zero until after the holiday season. Also see: 2002 (number). ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Vivendi Universal (VU) is a French conglomerate active in media and communications with activities in music, television and film, publishing, telecommunications and the Internet. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... is the 226th day of the year (227th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Also see: 2002 (number). ... The Cathach of St. ... It has been suggested that PC bang be merged into this article or section. ... Breach of contract is a legal concept in which a binding agreement or bargained-for exchange is not honored by one or more of the parties to the contract by non-performance or interference with the other partys performance. ... Counter-Strike: Condition Zero (abbreviated CS:CZ) is the single-player version of the multiplayer game, Counter-Strike. ...

Vivendi fought back, saying that Gabe Newell and marketing director Doug Lombardi had misrepresented Valve's position in meetings with the publisher. Vivendi later countersued, claiming that Valve's Steam content distribution system attempted to circumvent their publishing agreement. VUG sought intellectual property rights to Half-Life and a ruling preventing Valve from using Steam to distribute Half-Life 2. For the 2006 film, see Intellectual Property (film). ...

On November 29, 2004, Judge Thomas S. Zilly of U.S. Federal District Court in Seattle, WA ruled in favor of Valve Corporation. Specifically, the ruling stated that Vivendi Universal and its affiliates (including Sierra) were not authorized to distribute Valve games, either directly or indirectly, through cyber cafés to end users for pay-to-play activities pursuant to the parties' current publishing agreement. In addition, Judge Zilly ruled that Valve could recover copyright damages for infringements without regard to the publishing agreement's limitation of liability clause.^[3] Valve posted on the Steam website that the two companies had come to a settlement in court on April 29, 2005.^[4] Electronic Arts announced on July 18, 2005 that they would be teaming up with Valve in a multi-year deal to distribute their games, replacing Vivendi Universal from then onwards.^[5] is the 333rd day of the year (334th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Seattle redirects here. ... is the 119th day of the year (120th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Electronic Arts (EA) (NASDAQ: ERTS) is an American developer, marketer, publisher, and distributor of computer and video games. ... is the 199th day of the year (200th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

As of September 2, 2007 over 200 PC games are available on Steam, and there are approximately 13 million active users.^[6] is the 245th day of the year (246th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ...

Valve's Offices are located at:

10500 Ne 8th St Bellevue, WA 98004

See also

• Steam
• Valve Anti-Cheat
• List of Half-Life mods
• List of Half-Life 2 mods
• PowerPlay (technology)
• Source engine
• List of games that use the Source engine

Steam is a digital distribution, digital rights management, multiplayer and communications platform developed by Valve Corporation. ... Valve Anti-Cheat, abbreviated to VAC, is a proprietary anti-cheat solution developed and maintained by Valve Corporation as a component of the Steam platform. ... This article is being considered for deletion for the 2nd time in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ... This is a selected list of Half-Life 2 Mods (modifications). ... PowerPlay logo PowerPlay was a technological initiative headed by Valve Software and Cisco Systems to decrease the latency for online computer games. ... Source engine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... The Source engine is a 3D game engine developed by Valve Corporation. ...

References

Edge is a multi-format computer and video game magazine published by Future Publishing in the United Kingdom. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 143rd day of the year (144th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 144th day of the year (145th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• Official Homepage of Valve Corporation
• Official Steam Site