Valve Corporation

Moby ID: 126

AKA +
  • Valve L.L.C. (from 1996-08-24 to 2003-04-23)

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.

Their franchises include the Half-Life / Portal universe, Counter-Strike, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress, Left 4 Dead and DotA (except the original).

Aside games and engines, Valve has developed a Linux distribution named SteamOS (as of 2013), Steam Machine and Steam Controller hardware (2015-2019; again in 2026), virtual reality set families Valve Index (as of 2019) and Steam Frame (as of 2026), 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.

Upcoming Games
In the Valley of Gods (2029 on Macintosh, Windows, Linux)
Dew (2028 on Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5...)
Neo Berlin 2087 (2028 on Windows, PlayStation 5)
Precognition (2028 on Windows)
Sanctuary: Shattered Sun (2027 on Windows)
Mariachi Legends (2027 on Windows, Nintendo Switch)
Firefly Studios' Stronghold 4 (2027 on Windows)
Exodus (2027 on Windows, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series)
ReVamp (2027 on Windows)
Trine 6: Together in Time (2027 on Windows, Windows Apps, Xbox One...)
Fable (2027 on Windows, Xbox Cloud Gaming, Windows Apps...)
Persona 4: Revival (2027 on Windows, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Cloud Gaming...)
Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis (2027 on PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series...)
Metro 2039 (2027 on Windows, Windows Apps, PlayStation 5...)
Shatterswarm (2027 on Linux, Windows, Macintosh)
Liminal City: Axiom of Maria - Chapter One (2027 on Windows)
Sacred: Last Pixel of Ancaria (2027 on Windows)
Tropico 7 (2027 on Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Windows Apps...)
Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy (2027 on Windows, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series)
Cat Secretary (2027 on Windows)

Credited on 59,125 Games from 1998 to 2030

Displaying most recent · View all

Light of Motiram (Canceled) (2027 on Windows)
Ancient Wars: Sparta HD (2026 on Windows)
Barbie Rewind (2026 on Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One...)
Lewd Life (NSFW) (2026 on Windows, Macintosh)
More Than a Woman: Season 1 (NSFW) (2026 on Linux, Windows, Macintosh)
Battle Bears: Gold (2026 on Windows, Macintosh)
Confess to Me (NSFW) (2026 on Linux, Windows, Macintosh)
Farm & Feast (2026 on Macintosh, Linux, Windows)
Fox Stamps (2026 on Linux, Windows)
Furry Witch Fox (NSFW) (2026 on Windows, Macintosh)
Futa Paradise Resort (NSFW) (2026 on Linux, Windows, Macintosh)
Imperial Grace (2026 on Linux, Windows, Macintosh)
Lust and Restitution (NSFW) (2026 on Macintosh, Linux, Windows)
Monomoon (2026 on Windows)
No Love No Money (2026 on Windows)
Phuket Paradise (NSFW) (2026 on Windows)
Strap-On Me, Mistress! (NSFW) (2026 on Windows)
Summer Like a Dream (NSFW) (2026 on Linux, Windows, Macintosh)
The Girl at the Shrine (2026 on Windows)
Void Reaver (2026 on Windows)

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History +

November 12, 2025

Company announces the Steam Frame VR system/integrated PC, and the second generations of the Steam Machine and Steam Controller, scheduled for early 2026.

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.

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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

Related Web Sites +

  • Valve Corporation
    official site
  • Welcome to Steam
    Official Steam website, Valve's online content delivery system
  • Steam Community
    Valve's fledgling social network built around the Steam and its Friends & Groups functionality. Also includes Steam and game statistics.
  • Valve Developer Community
    A wiki for people developing games or mods using Valve's Source engine.
  • NZMac Review: Steam
    A (largely) unscored review of the Macintosh version of Steam by NZMac, a New Zealand Apple site (May 17, 2010).

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