Jump to content

Valve Corporation: Difference between revisions

Page semi-protected
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
m Correct capitalization
mNo edit summary
Line 63: Line 63:
Valve announced the [[Source 2]] engine in March 2015, later porting the entirety of ''Dota 2'' to the engine in September of that year.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/valve-just-announced-its-plans-for-steam-machines-and-source-2-1287082 |title=Valve just announced its plans for Steam Machines... and Source 2 |first=Hugh |last=Langley |work=[[Tech Radar]] |date=March 3, 2015 |accessdate=March 3, 2015 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150306030610/http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/valve-just-announced-its-plans-for-steam-machines-and-source-2-1287082 |archivedate=March 6, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Macy |first1=Seth |title=Dota 2 Now Valve's First Ever Source 2 Game |url=http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/09/09/dota-2-now-valves-first-ever-source-2-game |website=IGN |accessdate=September 9, 2015 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150910075128/http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/09/09/dota-2-now-valves-first-ever-source-2-game |archivedate=September 10, 2015}}</ref> In April 2018, Valve acquired the independent developer [[Campo Santo (company)|Campo Santo]], known for the 2016 adventure game ''[[Firewatch]]''. Campo Santo will continue to develop its own games under Valve.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.polygon.com/2018/4/21/17266690/valve-campo-santo-firewatch-steam |title=Valve acquires Firewatch developer, Campo Santo |first=Julia |last=Alexander |date=April 21, 2018 |accessdate=April 21, 2018 |work=[[Polygon (website)|Polygon]]}}</ref> In November 2018, Valve released ''[[Artifact (video game)|Artifact]]'', a [[digital collectible card game]] based on ''Dota 2''. The game was considered a flop, losing 95% of players months after release.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://comicbook.com/gaming/2019/03/29/artifact-valve-update-pc-steam-changes/|title=Valve Announces 'Artifact' Is Going Back to the Drawing Board|website=WWG|language=en|access-date=2019-08-10}}</ref> In June 2019, Valve released ''[[Dota Underlords]]'' into early access. It is based on ''[[Dota Auto Chess]]'', a popular ''Dota 2'' community-created [[auto battler]] game mode.
Valve announced the [[Source 2]] engine in March 2015, later porting the entirety of ''Dota 2'' to the engine in September of that year.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/valve-just-announced-its-plans-for-steam-machines-and-source-2-1287082 |title=Valve just announced its plans for Steam Machines... and Source 2 |first=Hugh |last=Langley |work=[[Tech Radar]] |date=March 3, 2015 |accessdate=March 3, 2015 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150306030610/http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/valve-just-announced-its-plans-for-steam-machines-and-source-2-1287082 |archivedate=March 6, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Macy |first1=Seth |title=Dota 2 Now Valve's First Ever Source 2 Game |url=http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/09/09/dota-2-now-valves-first-ever-source-2-game |website=IGN |accessdate=September 9, 2015 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150910075128/http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/09/09/dota-2-now-valves-first-ever-source-2-game |archivedate=September 10, 2015}}</ref> In April 2018, Valve acquired the independent developer [[Campo Santo (company)|Campo Santo]], known for the 2016 adventure game ''[[Firewatch]]''. Campo Santo will continue to develop its own games under Valve.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.polygon.com/2018/4/21/17266690/valve-campo-santo-firewatch-steam |title=Valve acquires Firewatch developer, Campo Santo |first=Julia |last=Alexander |date=April 21, 2018 |accessdate=April 21, 2018 |work=[[Polygon (website)|Polygon]]}}</ref> In November 2018, Valve released ''[[Artifact (video game)|Artifact]]'', a [[digital collectible card game]] based on ''Dota 2''. The game was considered a flop, losing 95% of players months after release.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://comicbook.com/gaming/2019/03/29/artifact-valve-update-pc-steam-changes/|title=Valve Announces 'Artifact' Is Going Back to the Drawing Board|website=WWG|language=en|access-date=2019-08-10}}</ref> In June 2019, Valve released ''[[Dota Underlords]]'' into early access. It is based on ''[[Dota Auto Chess]]'', a popular ''Dota 2'' community-created [[auto battler]] game mode.


In November 2019, Valve announced ''[[Half-Life: Alyx]]'', a [[virtual reality]] game, which will be released in March 2020. According members of the development team, much of its early development was honing the Source 2 engine. Along with that they had developed a number of game prototypes, but which never got to a state that made sense to release for a game.<ref name="finalhours alyx">{{cite web | url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9K0eJEmMEw | title = The Final Hours of Half-Life: Alyx | date = November 21, 2019 | accessdate = November 21, 2019 | first = Geoff | last = Keighley | authorlink = Geoff Keighley | via = [[YouTube]] }}</ref> Since 2015, Valve had been working to develop their own [[virtual reality headset]], the [[Valve Index]], which was released in June 2019. Many asked during this type what Valve had planned to release as a flagship game for their VR hardware as to justify an investment into the hardware, leading Valve to examine other possible prototypes before falling onto a new ''Half-Life'' game to serve this role.<ref name="finalhours alyx"/>
In November 2019, Valve announced ''[[Half-Life: Alyx]]'', a [[virtual reality]] game, which will be released in March 2020. According to members of the development team, much of its early development was honing the Source 2 engine. Along with that they had developed a number of game prototypes, but which never got to a state that made sense to release for a game.<ref name="finalhours alyx">{{cite web | url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9K0eJEmMEw | title = The Final Hours of Half-Life: Alyx | date = November 21, 2019 | accessdate = November 21, 2019 | first = Geoff | last = Keighley | authorlink = Geoff Keighley | via = [[YouTube]] }}</ref> Since 2015, Valve had been working to develop their own [[virtual reality headset]], the [[Valve Index]], which was released in June 2019. Many asked during this type what Valve had planned to release as a flagship game for their VR hardware as to justify an investment into the hardware, leading Valve to examine other possible prototypes before falling onto a new ''Half-Life'' game to serve this role.<ref name="finalhours alyx"/>


== Products ==
== Products ==

Revision as of 00:07, 24 December 2019

Valve Corporation
FormerlyValve, L.L.C. (1996–2003)
Company typePrivate
Industry
FoundedAugust 24, 1996; 28 years ago (1996-08-24) in Kirkland, Washington, US
Founders
Headquarters
Bellevue, Washington
,
US
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Products
Total equityUS$2.5 billion[1] (2012)
OwnerGabe Newell (50%)[2]
Number of employees
~360[3] (2016)
Subsidiaries
Websitevalvesoftware.com

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 Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Portal, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress, Left 4 Dead, and Dota series.

Valve was founded in 1996 by former Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington. Their debut product, the PC first-person shooter Half-Life, was released in 1998 to critical acclaim and commercial success, after which Harrington left the company. In 2003, Valve launched Steam, which accounted for around half of digital PC game sales by 2011. By 2012, Valve employed around 250 people and was reportedly worth over US$3 billion, making it the most profitable company per employee in the United States.[5][6] In the 2010s, Valve began producing hardware, such as the Steam Machine, a brand of gaming PCs, as well as the HTC Vive and Valve Index virtual reality headsets.

History

Founding and Half-Life (1996–2003)

Valve's logo between 1996 and 2018

Valve was founded in 1996 by former longtime Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington. Newell had spent the prior 13 years at Microsoft developing Windows.[7] Wanting to move onto a new venture using their shared wealth, they founded Valve, L.L.C. in Kirkland, Washington (about five miles from the Microsoft campus in Redmond), on August 24, 1996, Newell's wedding day.[8][9][7][10] Alternative names considered by Newell and Harrington include "Fruitfly Ensemble" and "Rhino Scar".[11]

Valve's first product was Half-Life, a first-person shooter (FPS) with elements of the horror genre.[12] The development was aided by access to the Quake engine by id Software; another former Microsoft employee Michael Abrash, who had worked with id, helped negotiate the license. Valve modified this engine into their GoldSrc engine.[7] After struggling to find a publisher, Valve eventually signed with Sierra On-Line.[7] Half-Life was released in November 1998,[13] and was a critical and commercial success.[14][15][16] 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.[7][18] They acquired TF Software, a group that made a popular Quake mod for Quake, and remade the mod for GoldSrc as Team Fortress, released in 1999.[19] The company released the software development kit (SDK) for the GoldSrc engine, facilitating numerous user-created mods. One of these, Counter-Strike, became one of the most popular mods, and Valve acquired the mod and hired its developers to create the standalone Counter-Strike game.[7] Harrington left the company in 2000.[7]

Expansion, Source engine, and Steam (2003–2013)

In 2003, Valve moved to Bellevue, Washington, and re-incorporated as Valve Corporation.[7] In 2010, the office moved again 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 their offices.[20]

After the success of Half-Life, the team worked on mods, spin-offs, and sequels, including Half-Life 2, using its new Source engine, improving upon its GoldSrc engine. Team Fortress 2 was a reworked version of Team Fortress Classic developed in the Source engine. To expand on Half-Life 2, Valve had planned on releasing three episodes to extend its story prior to a planned Half-Life 3. With the second episode, Valve also packaged the game for consoles in The Orange Box, which included Half-Life 2 and both episodes, Team Fortress 2, and Portal, an experimental game developed by a student team hired into Valve from their work on Narbacular Drop. Of the Orange Box games, Portal proved a critical success, and later, Valve developed Portal 2, hiring in another student team from the game Tag: The Power of Paint to incorporate those mechanics.

Alongside developing games, Valve developed Steam, a digital storefront and delivery platform. The concept of Steam bore out of Valve trying to maintain patches for games like Counter-Strike so that all players were up-to-date. Failing to gain help from other third-party developers, Valve took it on themselves to build out Steam, which was first introduced in 2002, and eventually became mandatory by the time of Half-Life 2's release.[21][22] Steam initially offered only Valve's games, but they soon allowed third-parties to sell on the service with Valve taking a cut of the revenues for maintaining the storefront and content delivery. Steam eventually became the most significant ways gamers on the personal computer platform acquired digital games, with Steam accounting for up to 70% of all digital sales.[23]

In January 2008, they announced the acquisition of Turtle Rock Studios,[24] which would be renamed Valve South.[25] 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.[26]

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.[27]

In December 2012, Valve acquired Star Filled Studios, a two-man gaming company, to open a San Francisco office.[28] However, Valve ended the operation in August 2013 when they decided there was little benefit coming from the arrangement.[29]

At the 2013 D.I.C.E. Summit, Newell announced that he and film director J. J. Abrams were collaborating to produce a Half-Life or Portal film, as well as a possible new game.[30]

Transition to services, VR, and Source 2 (2014–present)

Valve's activities as a game developer has slowed significantly since 2013, around the same time that Valve started to reduce its involvement in curation on Steam via Steam Greenlight, allowing for a larger influx of titles and gain its dominate position as the primary digital storefront for PC gaming. Between 2014 and 2019, Valve has only developed one game, Artifact. However, Valve has also looked at other projects, including Steam Machine consoles, and developing virtual reality hardware in association with HTC in the HTC Vive and later in its own Valve Index hardware. It has been argued that the transition from game developer to service provider has been driven by the economics in Steam, which is estimated to bring in more revenue than Valve's own game sales; in 2017, Steam Spy estimated that Valve has received US$4.3 billion in its revenues from Steam sales.[31] In contrast, Valve had estimated to have had only hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue around 2010 and 2011 with a net worth estimated between two and four billion dollars.[32] Many players have been waiting in anticipation of either the final episode of Half-Life 2, or a potential Half-Life 3, and while word of several potential starts on these have been mentioned by former Valve employees or other companies, they remain in limbo as of 2019. Some consider these projects to be canceled due to the departure of some of the lead talent involved in earlier games.[33]

The change in Valve's approach has also been attributed to its use of a flat organization structure that was adopted as the company expanded. Valve's structure was more typical of other development firms at its founding, driven by the nature of physical game releases through publishers that required tasks to be completed by given deadlines.[34] However, as Valve became its own publisher via Steam, it transitioned to a looser, flat structure, which was formally in place by 2012.[35][36] Outside of executive management, Valve does not have bosses, and the company used an open allocation system, allowing employees to move between departments at will.[37][38] 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".[34] Many outside observers believe the lack of organization structure has led to frequent cancellations of potential games as it can be difficult to convince other employees to work on such titles.[39][40][41]

Valve announced the Source 2 engine in March 2015, later porting the entirety of Dota 2 to the engine in September of that year.[42][43] In April 2018, Valve acquired the independent developer Campo Santo, known for the 2016 adventure game Firewatch. Campo Santo will continue to develop its own games under Valve.[44] In November 2018, Valve released Artifact, a digital collectible card game based on Dota 2. The game was considered a flop, losing 95% of players months after release.[45] In June 2019, Valve released Dota Underlords into early access. It is based on Dota Auto Chess, a popular Dota 2 community-created auto battler game mode.

In November 2019, Valve announced Half-Life: Alyx, a virtual reality game, which will be released in March 2020. According to members of the development team, much of its early development was honing the Source 2 engine. Along with that they had developed a number of game prototypes, but which never got to a state that made sense to release for a game.[46] Since 2015, Valve had been working to develop their own virtual reality headset, the Valve Index, which was released in June 2019. Many asked during this type what Valve had planned to release as a flagship game for their VR hardware as to justify an investment into the hardware, leading Valve to examine other possible prototypes before falling onto a new Half-Life game to serve this role.[46]

Products

Games

Main article: List of Valve Corporation video 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, and Artifact. Valve also published the multiplayer game Left 4 Dead and developed and published Left 4 Dead 2.[citation needed] On November 18, 2019, Valve announced Half-Life: Alyx, a virtual reality game, set for release in 2020.[47]

Unreleased and canceled Valve games include a fantasy role-playing game Prospero.[48] Valve worked with Arkane Studios on The Crossing, which was canceled in May 2009.[49] Arkane tried to develop Return to Ravenholm without consent by Valve, which was also canceled.[50]

Steam

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

Valve announced Steam, its digital distribution service, at the 2002 Game Developers Conference.[51][52] It was launched in September 2003 and was first used to deliver patches and other updates to Valve's online games.[53][54]

On August 1, 2012, Valve announced revisions to the Steam Subscriber Agreement (SSA) to prohibit class action lawsuits by users against the service provider.[55][56] By July 2014, there were over 3,400 games available on Steam, with over 150 million registered accounts by January 2018.[57][58]

Alongside these changes to the SSA, the company also declared publicly the incorporation of Valve S.a.r.l., a subsidiary based in Luxembourg.[55][56] 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.[59]

Valve S.a.r.l. was used to sell games to UK users to avoid paying the full 20% value-added tax (VAT).[60] The tax loophole was expected to close on January 1, 2015.[61] 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.[62] Valve S.a.r.l. ceased business on January 1, 2017, with the main company taking over EU sales again.[63] In August 2017, Valve announced that Steam had reached over 67 million monthly and 33 million daily active users on the platform.[64]

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 PC space".[65] 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.[65]

In 2012, Valve announced that they were working on a console/PC hybrid for the living room, dubbed by media as the "Steam Box".[66][67] 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[68] 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.[69] In 2015, Alienware, ZOTAC, and CyberPowerPC launched their versions of the Steam Machine. By June 2016, fewer than half a million had been sold.[70] While the Steam Machine line has been effectively canceled, Valve continued to manufacture and sell Steam Controllers until late November 2019[71], and publishes both mobile apps and software for the Steam Link, allowing in-home streaming.

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.[72][73]

In November 2017, Microsoft added beta support for the SteamVR service for Windows Mixed Reality headsets.[74][75] In June 2019, Valve released their own VR headset, known as the 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.[76][77][78]

Other projects

PowerPlay

PowerPlay was a technological initiative headed by Valve and Cisco Systems to decrease the latency for online computer games.[79] Gabe Newell, the managing director of Valve, announced the project in January 2000 and after 12 months the project was quietly abandoned.

PowerPlay 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.[80] 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.[81] Despite never deploying the dial-up plan featuring PowerPlay 1.0, Valve announced in January 2001 that the standard had indeed been finalized.[80]

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 the expense of all others. Gabe 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."[82]

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.[83] Pipeline serves to discuss and answer questions that teenagers often ask about the video game industry,[84] and see if it is possible to train a group of teenagers with minimal work experience to work for a company like Valve.[84] The latter purpose breaks Valve's tradition of employing experienced developers, as the company is not good at "teaching people straight out of school".[84]

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). It officially began on August 14, 2002, when Valve sued Sierra for copyright infringement, alleging that the publisher had illegally distributed copies of their games to Internet cafes. They later added claims of breach of contract, accusing their publisher of withholding royalties and delaying the release of Counter-Strike: Condition Zero until after the holiday season.

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

On November 29, 2004, Judge Thomas Samuel Zilly of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington ruled in favor of Valve. Specifically, the ruling stated that Vivendi Universal and its affiliates (including Sierra) were not authorized to distribute Valve games, either directly or indirectly, through cyber cafés to end users for pay-to-play activities pursuant to the parties' publishing agreement. In addition, Judge Zilly ruled that Valve could recover copyright damages for infringements without regard to the publishing agreement's limitation of liability clause.[85] Valve posted on the Steam website that the two companies had come to a settlement in court on April 29, 2005.[86] 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.[87] As a result of the trial, the arbitrator also awarded Valve $2,391,932.

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.[88][89]

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 "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.[90] 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.[91]

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.[92] 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.[93] 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.[94]

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 dated 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.[90]

ACCC v. Valve Corporation

The Australian Competition and 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:[95][96]

  • 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.[97] 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.[98] In January 2018, Valve filed for a "special leave" of the court's decision, appealing to the High Court of Australia.[99] 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.[100]

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.[101][102] 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.[103]

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.[104] 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.[105][106] 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.[107] 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.[108]

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.[109] 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.[110]

"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 predominant delays but also includes some content that was released earlier than expected. Valve itself has fully acknowledged the term, including tracking known discrepancies between ideal and actual releases on their public development wiki[111] and using it in announcements about such delays.[112][113] Valve ascribes delays to their mentality of team-driven initiatives over corporate deadlines to make sure they provide a high-quality product to their customers.[114]

Valve's former business development chief Jason Holtman stated that the company sees themselves as an "oddity" in an industry that looks towards punctual delivery of products; instead, Valve "[tries] as hard as we can to make the best thing possible in the right time frame and get people content they want to consume. And if that takes longer, that's fine".[115] For that, Valve takes the concept of "Valve Time" as a compliment, and that "having customers consistently looking at our property or something you've done and saying, can you give me more" is evidence that they are making the right decisions with their game releases, according to Holtman.[115] The company does try to avoid unintentional delays of their projects,[116] and believes that the earlier occurrences of "Valve Time" delays, primarily from Half-Life development, has helped them improve their release schedules.[114]

References

  1. ^ Wingfield, Nick (September 8, 2012). "Game Maker Without a Rule Book". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 12, 2012. Retrieved September 9, 2012.
  2. ^ Chiang, Oliver (February 9, 2011). "The Master of Online Mayhem". Forbes. Archived 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. Archived from the original on October 18, 2016. Retrieved October 18, 2016.
  4. ^ "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.
  5. ^ Makuch, Eddie. "Valve worth $3 billion – Report". GameSpot. Retrieved May 1, 2018.
  6. ^ Chiang, Oliver. "Valve And Steam Worth Billions". Forbes. Archived from the original on November 17, 2016. Retrieved November 16, 2016.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Dunn, Jeff (October 4, 2013). "Full Steam ahead: The History of Valve". Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  8. ^ 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
  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. Archived from the original on October 15, 2008. Retrieved November 8, 2008.
  10. ^ Keefer, John (March 31, 2006). "GameSpy Retro: Developer Origins, Page 16 of 19". GameSpy. Archived from the original on June 9, 2007.
  11. ^ Walker, John (November 21, 2007). "RPS Exclusive: Gabe Newell Interview". Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  12. ^ "The Final Hours of Half-Life: The id visit". GameSpot. Archived from the original on February 23, 2011. Retrieved September 12, 2006.
  13. ^ "The Final Hours of Half-Life: Reassembling the Pieces". GameSpot. Archived from the original on February 25, 2011. Retrieved September 14, 2006.
  14. ^ Green, Jeff (February 1, 1999). "Half-Life". Computer Gaming World. Archived from the original on February 9, 2002. Retrieved April 14, 2010.
  15. ^ "Half-Life Review". GameSpot. Archived 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. Archived from the original on January 19, 2015. Retrieved March 31, 2016.
  17. ^ "Half-Life – #1 Top Shooters". IGN.com. September 13, 2013. Archived 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. Retrieved July 5, 2018.
  19. ^ "Team Fortress Full Speed Ahead". GameSpot. Archived from the original on March 23, 2014. Retrieved June 2, 2016.
  20. ^ 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.
  21. ^ Case, Loyd (March 22, 2002). "Valve Changes Online Gaming Rules". PC Magazine. Archived from the original on March 2, 2016. Retrieved February 14, 2016.
  22. ^ Lee, James. "The Last of the Independents?". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on August 15, 2017. Retrieved July 9, 2010.
  23. ^ Chiang, Oliver. "The Master of Online Mayhem". Forbes. Archived from the original on February 13, 2011. Retrieved February 14, 2011.
  24. ^ "Valve Acquires Turtle Rock Studios" (Press release). Valve. January 10, 2008. Archived from the original on October 15, 2008. Retrieved January 10, 2008.
  25. ^ Robinson, Martin (February 11, 2014). "Why Turtle Rock left Valve".
  26. ^ Bramwell, Tom (March 18, 2010). "Turtle Rock Studios reforms".
  27. ^ 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.
  28. ^ 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.
  29. ^ Reilly, Luke (August 7, 2013). "Valve's San Francisco Remote Office Shut Down". IGN. Archived from the original on September 2, 2013.
  30. ^ "LambdaGeneration 2.0 – Coming Soon". Lambdageneration.com. Archived from the original on May 1, 2013. Retrieved August 31, 2013.
  31. ^ Cooper, Ryan (June 4, 2019). "How capitalism killed one of the best video game studios". The Week. Retrieved June 7, 2019.
  32. ^ Chiang, Oliver (February 9, 2011). "The Master of Online Mayhem". Forbes. Archived from the original on February 13, 2011. Retrieved October 13, 2016.
  33. ^ "Whatever happened to Half-Life 3? The complete saga so far". PCGamesN. November 19, 2018. Retrieved November 19, 2018.
  34. ^ a b Wawro, Alex (February 17, 2017). "Gabe Newell discusses the downsides of working at Valve". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on February 18, 2017. Retrieved February 17, 2017.
  35. ^ Graft, Kris (April 23, 2012). "From the editor: Valve's handbook and the trust phenomenon". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on February 18, 2017. Retrieved February 17, 2017.
  36. ^ "Valve Handbook for New Employees" (PDF). Valve. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 8, 2013. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
  37. ^ Suddath, Claire (April 25, 2012). "What Makes Valve Software the Best Office Ever?". Business Week. Archived from the original on August 15, 2012.
  38. ^ Suddath, Claire (April 27, 2012). "Why ThereAre No Bosses At Valve". Business Week. Archived from the original on September 4, 2013.
  39. ^ Petitte, Omri (February 13, 2013). "Valve lays off several employees in hardware, mobile teams [Updated]". PCGamer.com. PC Gamer. Archived from the original on February 19, 2013. Retrieved February 16, 2013.
  40. ^ 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.
  41. ^ Hern, Alex (August 3, 2012). "Valve Software: free marketeer's dream, or nightmare?". New Statesman. Archived from the original on August 5, 2012.
  42. ^ 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.
  43. ^ Macy, Seth. "Dota 2 Now Valve's First Ever Source 2 Game". IGN. Archived from the original on September 10, 2015. Retrieved September 9, 2015.
  44. ^ Alexander, Julia (April 21, 2018). "Valve acquires Firewatch developer, Campo Santo". Polygon. Retrieved April 21, 2018.
  45. ^ "Valve Announces 'Artifact' Is Going Back to the Drawing Board". WWG. Retrieved August 10, 2019.
  46. ^ a b Keighley, Geoff (November 21, 2019). "The Final Hours of Half-Life: Alyx". Retrieved November 21, 2019 – via YouTube.
  47. ^ Hollister, Sean (November 21, 2019). "Half-Life: Alyx is officially coming March 2020, and here's your first look". The Verge. Retrieved November 22, 2019.
  48. ^ Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar. Prima Games. 2004. p. 10. ISBN 0-7615-4364-3.
  49. ^ O'Conner, Alice (May 15, 2009). "Arkane and Valve's 'The Crossing' on Hold". Shacknews. Archived from the original on May 9, 2013. Retrieved June 11, 2013.
  50. ^ Savage, Phil (January 15, 2013). "Half-Life 2: Episode 4 was being developed by Arkane; now cancelled". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved July 8, 2014.
  51. ^ "Full Steam ahead: The History of Valve". gamesradar. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
  52. ^ "GDC 2002: Valve unveils Steam". GameSpot.com. March 22, 2002. Retrieved September 7, 2006.
  53. ^ "The 13-year evolution of Steam". pcgamer. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
  54. ^ Burnes, Andrew (September 10, 2003). "Steam Client Delayed". IGN. Retrieved March 1, 2018.
  55. ^ 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.
  56. ^ a b "Updated Steam Subscriber Agreement". Valve. August 1, 2012. Archived from the original on August 3, 2012. Retrieved August 3, 2012.
  57. ^ "Steam has 75 million active users, Valve announces at Dev Days". Joystiq. January 15, 2014. Archived from the original on July 19, 2014. Retrieved July 11, 2014.
  58. ^ Supor, Taylor (August 3, 2017). "Valve reveals Steam's monthly active user count and game sales by region". GeekWire. Retrieved November 27, 2017.
  59. ^ 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.
  60. ^ 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.
  61. ^ Chapple, Craig. (March 25, 2014) UK closing tax loophole on Steam game downloads | Latest news from the game development industry | Develop. Develop-online.net. Retrieved on May 23, 2014.
  62. ^ Nutt, Christian (December 17, 2015). "French consumer group sues Valve over Steam policies". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on December 18, 2015. Retrieved December 17, 2015.
  63. ^ "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.
  64. ^ "Valve reveals Steam's monthly active user count and game sales by region". GeekWire. August 3, 2017. Retrieved August 4, 2017.
  65. ^ a b Crabtree, Dan (July 25, 2012). "Gabe Newell: "Windows 8 Is Kind of a Catastrophe"". IGN. Retrieved September 24, 2013.
  66. ^ 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.
  67. ^ 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 April 21, 2013.
  68. ^ 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 September 23, 2013.
  69. ^ 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.
  70. ^ Wilde, Tyler (April 2, 2018). "What happened to Steam Machines?". PC Gamer. Retrieved May 7, 2018.
  71. ^ Hollister, Sean (November 26, 2019). "Pour one out for the Steam Controller, sold out forever after $5 fire sale". The Verge. Retrieved December 13, 2019.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  72. ^ Orland, Kyle (March 5, 2015). "Hands-on: Valve/HTC Vive opens up the virtual reality experience". Ars Technica. Retrieved November 21, 2019.
  73. ^ Machkovech, Sam (June 12, 2015). "SteamVR: The room-scale VR world that feels like an "IMAX in your house"". Ars Technica. Retrieved November 21, 2019.
  74. ^ Shilov, Anton. "Windows Mixed Reality Headsets Gain SteamVR Support, a Library of VR Games". Retrieved December 5, 2017.
  75. ^ "SteamVR games available in Windows Mixed Reality on November 15th". The Verge. Retrieved November 11, 2017.
  76. ^ Higham, Michael. "Valve Index Impressions – A Necessary But Incremental Step For PC VR". GameSpot. Retrieved June 9, 2019.
  77. ^ Robertson, Adi (May 28, 2019). "The Valve Index might have the most fun VR controllers I've ever tried". The Verge. Retrieved November 21, 2019.
  78. ^ Robertson, Adi (June 22, 2018). "Valve is shipping new 'Knuckles' VR controllers to developers with a Portal-themed demo". Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  79. ^ "Valve, Cisco, and a Host of PC Developers Unveil PowerPlay". IGN. January 7, 2000. Archived from the original on July 8, 2015.
  80. ^ a b "PowerPlay and interview". Planetfortress. 2000. Archived from the original on July 17, 2012. Retrieved November 17, 2012.
  81. ^ "Voodoo Extreme". Archived from the original on August 17, 2000. Retrieved November 17, 2012.
  82. ^ "PowerPlay Preview". EuroGamer. January 19, 2000. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved November 17, 2012.
  83. ^ "Pipeline — About Us". Valve. Archived from the original on August 31, 2013. Retrieved September 13, 2013.
  84. ^ a b c "Pipeline — Home". pipeline.valvesoftware.com. Valve. Archived from the original on August 20, 2014. Retrieved August 31, 2013.
  85. ^ Feldman, Curt (September 20, 2004). "Valve vs. Vivendi Universal dogfight heats up in US District Court". GameSpot. CNET Networks, Inc. Archived from the original on September 8, 2008. Retrieved November 8, 2008.
  86. ^ "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.
  87. ^ "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.
  88. ^ "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.
  89. ^ "Valve Corporation v. Activision Blizzard, Inc". United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. July 30, 2010. Archived from the original on February 9, 2015.
  90. ^ 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.
  91. ^ Augustine, Josh (August 17, 2010). "Riot Games' dev counter-files "DotA" trademark". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on February 3, 2013. Retrieved August 19, 2011.
  92. ^ Plunkett, Luke (February 10, 2012). "Blizzard and Valve go to War Over DOTA Name". Kotaku. Archived from the original on February 11, 2012.
  93. ^ Reilly, Jim (May 11, 2012). "Valve, Blizzard Reach DOTA Trademark Agreement". Game Informer. Archived from the original on July 24, 2012.
  94. ^ Narcisse, Evan (October 17, 2013). "Blizzard's Diablo/Starcraft/WoW Crossover Has a New Name". Kotaku. Archived from the original on October 20, 2013.
  95. ^ Wilkins, Georgia (March 29, 2016). "Online games giant Valve found to have breached Australian consumer law". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on September 13, 2016. Retrieved December 3, 2016.
  96. ^ 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.
  97. ^ 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.
  98. ^ Jones, Ali (December 22, 2017). "Australian courts say Valve must pay a $3 million fine for "misleading" consumers". PCGamesN. Retrieved December 27, 2017.
  99. ^ Makuch, Eddie (January 22, 2018). "Ordered To Pay $3 Million Fine, Valve Files Another Appeal In Australia". GameSpot. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  100. ^ Makuch, Eddie (April 19, 2018). "Valve Loses Appeal For $3 Million Fine In Australia". GameSpot. Retrieved April 19, 2018.
  101. ^ 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.
  102. ^ 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 December 3, 2016.
  103. ^ Campbell, Colin (September 19, 2019). "French court rules that Steam's ban on reselling used games is contrary to European law". Polygon. Retrieved September 19, 2019.
  104. ^ 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.
  105. ^ Francis, Bryant (July 13, 2016). "Valve says it will start cracking down on third-party gambling sites". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on July 15, 2016. Retrieved July 13, 2016.
  106. ^ "News – In-Game Item Trading Update". store.steampowered.com. Archived from the original on July 15, 2016. Retrieved July 15, 2016.
  107. ^ 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 October 5, 2016.
  108. ^ 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 December 3, 2016.
  109. ^ 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.
  110. ^ Chee, Foo Yun (August 29, 2019). "Exclusive: Valve to fight EU antitrust charges, five videogame publishers to settle: sources". Reuters. Retrieved August 29, 2019.
  111. ^ "Valve Time". Valve. Archived from the original on June 18, 2010. Retrieved June 9, 2010.
  112. ^ Kohler, Chris (June 9, 2010). "Valve Delays Portal 2 to 2011". Wired. Archived from the original on June 12, 2010. Retrieved June 9, 2010.
  113. ^ 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 November 18, 2010.
  114. ^ a b Remo, Chris (February 24, 2010). "Valve's Faliszek: Team Self-Determination Drives Left 4 Dead 2 DLC Strategy". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on May 9, 2010. Retrieved June 9, 2010.
  115. ^ a b Yin-Poole, Wesley (July 12, 2012). "Valve on Valve Time: "It's charming. It's kind of a compliment."". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on July 13, 2012. Retrieved July 12, 2012.
  116. ^ Nutt, Christian (November 12, 2009). "Q&A: Valve's Swift On Left 4 Dead 2's Production, AI Boost". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on May 13, 2010. Retrieved June 9, 2010.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Valve Corporation.

Template:Major video game companies

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Valve_Corporation&oldid=932178723"