User:Mambomon

Founding and incorporation Valve was founded by former longtime Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington on August 24, 1996,[3][4] as Valve L.L.C., based in Kirkland, Washington on the Seattle Eastside. Harrington left the company in 2000. After incorporation in April 2003,[5] it moved from its original location to Bellevue, Washington, the same city in which their original publisher, Sierra On-Line, Inc., was based. In 2010, the office was moved again to a larger location in Bellevue, WA.[6]

In 2016, the Kemper Development Company announced that Valve had signed a nine-floor lease in the Lincoln Square complex in downtown Bellevue, doubling the size of their offices.[7]

Half-Life Main article: Half-Life (video game) After securing a license to the Quake engine through the help of friend Michael Abrash of id Software in late 1996, Newell and Harrington began working on Half-Life. Originally planned for release in late 1997, Half-Life launched on November 19, 1998. Valve acquired TF Software PTY Ltd, the makers of the Team Fortress mod for Quake, in May 1998 with the intent to create a standalone Team Fortress game.[8] The Team Fortress Classic mod, essentially a port of the original Team Fortress mod for Quake, was released for Half-Life in 1999. Gearbox contributed much after the release of Half-Life. Gearbox Software is responsible for the Half-Life expansion packs, Half-Life: Opposing Force and Half-Life: Blue Shift, along with the home console versions of Half-Life for the Sega Dreamcast and Sony PlayStation 2 which included a third expansion pack called Half-Life: Decay, that enabled two-player split-screen co-op.

Source game engine Main article: Source (game engine) After the success of Half-Life, the team worked on mods, spin-offs, and sequels, including Half-Life 2. All current Valve games are built on its Source engine. The company has developed six game series: Half-Life, Team Fortress, Portal, Counter-Strike, Left 4 Dead and Day of Defeat. Valve is noted for its support of its games' modding community: most prominently, Counter-Strike, Team Fortress, and Day of Defeat. Valve has branched out with this tradition to continue developing Dota 2 as the standalone sequel to the Warcraft III mod.[9] Each of these games began as a third-party mod that Valve purchased and developed into a full game. They also distribute community mods on Steam.[10] Valve announced the Source 2 engine on March 3, 2015.[11]

Acquisitions and awards