Valve Corporation

Moby ID: 126

AKA +
  • Valve L.L.C. (from 1996 to 2003)

Overview edit · view history

Valve Corporation is an entertainment software company founded in 1996 by Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington in Kirkland, Washington. They were both previously with Microsoft. Valve's debut product, Half-Life, released in November 1998, has won more than 50 Game of the Year honors worldwide.

On 12 September 2003, the company launched the digital distribution platform Steam. Steam's launch and the question of licenses for cyber cafes resulted in a dispute with Valve's publisher at the time, Vivendi Universal (as owner of Sierra), which was resolved in April 2005 in Valve's favor, with all their future titles being self-published from that moment on. Steam would gradually gain traction as the most popular digital distribution service for PC games by the late 2000s, for both Valve's and third-party titles.

All of the company's titles from 1998 to mid-2004 ran on the in-house GoldSrc engine until it was succeeded by the Source engine with the release of Counter-Strike: Source in 2004. Valve then used the Source engine for all of their titles until the engine was succeeded by Source 2 in 2015.

Aside games and engines, Valve has developed a Linux distribution named SteamOS (as of 2013), Steam Machine and Steam Controller hardware (2015-2019), virtual reality set family Valve Index (as of 2019), and the Steam Deck handheld device (as of 2022).

From January 2008 to June 2009, Valve owned the studio Turtle Rock Studios (then renamed to Valve South) to develop Left 4 Dead, after which the studio was closed, then re-established independently from Valve in February 2010. In November 2012, Valve acquired Star Filled Studios. In January 2017, Valve acquired Impulsonic. In April 2018, Valve acquired Campo Santo Productions.

Credited on 42,187 Games from 1998 to 2024

Displaying most recent · View all

Book of Korvald (2024 on Windows)
Hentai Senpai: Konbini no Shirigaru Onna (2024 on Windows)
Hot & Lewd: Miami (2024 on Windows)
Lost Girl Platformer (2024 on Windows)
Once a Porn a Time 2 (2024 on Linux, Windows)
A Fascinating Story (2024 on Windows)
altushka + (2024 on Windows)
Ardency: Heart of the Rebellion (2024 on Macintosh, Linux, Windows)
Broke in Isekai (2024 on Windows)
Charming Hearts (2024 on Windows)
Don't Shout Together (2024 on Windows)
Fallen Aces (2024 on Windows)
Hentai Tales: Backyard 33rd (2024 on Macintosh, Linux, Windows)
Legend of Mortal (2024 on Windows)
Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance (2024 on Windows, Windows Apps, PlayStation 4...)
Synthetic Soul: Reset (2024 on Windows)
The Heroes Around Me (2024 on Windows)
Adventure and study English in a fantasy world VI (2024 on Windows)
Bite Night (2024 on Windows)
Sex Counselor (2024 on Windows)

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History +

December 17, 2022

Valve's Linux-based handheld gaming device, the Steam Deck, ships in Asia.

February 25, 2022

Valve's Linux-based handheld gaming device, the Steam Deck, ships in North America and Europe.

November 26, 2019

The Steam Controller production is discontinued.

June 28, 2019

The first units of Valve Index, a family of virtual reality hardware, are released.

January 12, 2017

Impulsonic Inc. announces that they have been acquired by Valve.

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Trivia +

The German online magazine 4Players named Valve as #2 Best Developer of 2007 and Best Developer of 2011.

The company was named "Developer of 2008" by the online gaming magazine GameSpy.

Address in 2003:

Valve, LLC

520 Kirkland Way, Ste 201

Kirkland, WA 98033

Postal address:

P. O. Box 1688

Bellevue WA 98009

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