Valve Corporation

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The Valve logo.

Valve Corporation is an American video game developer based in Bellevue, Washington,^[1] made famous by its first product, Half-Life, which was released on November 19, 1998.^[2] The company has followed Half-Life's success by developing mods, spin-offs, and sequels including Half-Life 2. They have also developed many other games such as Counter-Strike, Team Fortress 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, and the Left 4 Dead series.

[edit] History

Valve started out as a L.L.C. company based in Kirkland, Washington. After incorporation in 2003, Valve moved from Kirkland to Bellevue, Washington.

After the success of Half-Life, the Valve team expanded their portfolio, creating mods, spin-offs, and sequels. Valve has created six different series which include Half-Life, Team Fortress, Portal, Counter-Strike, Left 4 Dead, and Day of Defeat. Valve is mostly noted for it's support of the modding community; it's games Counter-Strike, Team Fortress, and Day of Defeat, all started out as third-party mods before becoming full-fledged games. Valve also distributes community mods on their content delivery system, Steam.

[edit] Games

[edit] Half-Life

Main article: Half-Life

Long-time Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington founded Valve in 1996. For their first game, Gabe and Mike settled on a concept for a horror-themed 3D action game, and licensed the Quake engine from id Software in late 1996 (through the help of friend Michael Abrash of id Software). Soon after securing a license to the Quake engine, Valve commenced working on Half-Life. Valve eventually modified the engine a great deal, notably adding skeletal animation and Direct3D support; a developer later stated that seventy percent of the engine code was rewritten.^[source?] The company had difficulties finding a publisher at first, many believing their project "too ambitious" for a studio headed by newcomers to the video game industry. Sierra On-Line had been very interested in making a 3D action game, especially one based on the Quake engine, and so signed them for a one-game deal. Shortly thereafter, Half-Life was released on November 19, 1998. After its release, Valve continued to work on Half-Life, working with other developers to port it to other platforms.

[edit] Mods

Main article: Mods

Since its release, Half-Life has gone through many third-party mods. The creation of these mods were largely due in part to Valve's encouragement by releasing Worldcraft, a level-design tool, with the game software. They also released a software development kit, further enabling developers to modify the game and create mods.

An SDK for Half-Life has been released and is being used as a base for many multiplayer mods such as Counter-Strike. Other multiplayer mods include Day of Defeat, Deathmatch Classic, and Team Fortress Classic. TFC and DMC were developed in-house at Valve Software. Counter-Strike, Day of Defeat, and others that began life as the work of independent developers, later on received aid from Valve.

Some Half-Life modifications eventually landed on retail shelves. Counter-Strike was the most successful, having been released in five different editions: as a standalone product, as part of the Platinum Pack, as an Xbox version (the single player spin-off), Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, and the newest addition, Counter-Strike: Source, which runs on Half-Life 2's Source engine. Team Fortress Classic, Day of Defeat, and Gunman Chronicles were also released as stand-alone products.

[edit] Half-Life 2

A screenshot of the developer's original commercial cinematic, showing the distinctive man (the Valve Guy) with a red valve in his left eye, used from 1998 (Half-Life) to 2006 (Episode One).

A screenshot of the 2007 Valve commercial cinematic, showing the Valve Guy, (now a heavily-built man), with a valve in the back of his head. This image might be as old as 1998, since the valve detail is present in the Half-Life texture files (it is also used as the favicon for Valve Software's website).

Main article: Half-Life 2

Valve created a stir at E3 in May 2003 by debuting what appeared to be a surprisingly complete Half-Life 2 and its Source engine. Originally scheduled to be released in September 2003, the game's first delay was announced just weeks before its scheduled release. (Valve later admitted that the game was far from completion, and that they had come to grips with this fact as early as July.) Just before the delay was announced, the theft of Half-Life 2's source code made worldwide news. At first, Valve called on the FBI, but without results. They then turned to the internet community, and soon tips came in.^[3] A German citizen who went by the name of Axel Gembe was ultimately tried and convicted for the leak, as well as the creation of several computer viruses.^[4] After nearly an extra year's delay, Half-Life 2 was finally released on November 16, 2004.^[5]

[edit] Half-Life 2: Episode One

Main article: Half-Life 2: Episode One

In April 2005, Valve announced another game titled Half-Life 2: Episode One, which would expand the gameplay, technology, and story left off in Half-Life 2. Half-Life 2: Episode One was released on June 1, 2006. Valve explained that the focus of Episode One was character development, in particular that of Gordon's female sidekick and friend Alyx, because she accompanies the player for virtually the entire game.^[6] Project lead Robin Walker discussed the reasoning behind this approach in an article announcing the game in the May 2005 issue of PC Gamer UK, saying, "It's kind of ironic that despite so much of the theme of Half-Life 2 being about other characters and other people, you spent most of the game alone."^[7]

Episode One runs on an upgraded version of Valve's Source, and features both the engine's advanced lighting effects, and a new version of its facial animation/expression technology.^[8] Upgrades to enemy AI allow Combine soldiers to utilize tactics previously unavailable to them. For example, Combine soldiers were given the ability to crouch while being fired upon in order to duck underneath the player's line of fire.^[9] The game's soundtrack was composed by Kelly Bailey.^[10] The music is used sparingly throughout; it plays primarily during scenes of major plot developments or particularly important action sequences such as large battles or when encountering a new enemy.

[edit] Steam and lawsuits

Main article: Steam

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.

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.

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.

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.^[11]

On April 29 2005, Valve posted on the Steam website that the two companies had come to a settlement in court.^[12]

On July 18, 2005, Electronic Arts announced that they would be teaming up with Valve in a multi-year deal to distribute their games, replacing Vivendi Universal from 2005 onwards.^[13]

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Official Steam Site
• The Valve team
• Facebook page