Valve Corporation(2)
wikipedia | 2013-08-02 14:50


Games

 

Title Year Genre Platform
Half-Life 1998 First-person shooter (FPS) Windows, PlayStation 2, OS X, Linux
Team Fortress Classic 1999 First-person shooter Windows, OS X, Linux
Half-Life: Opposing Force 1999 FPS expansion pack Windows, OS X, Linux
Deathmatch Classic 2000 First-person shooter Windows, OS X, Linux
Ricochet 2000 Action game Windows, OS X, Linux
Counter-Strike 2000 First-person shooter Windows, Xbox, OS X, Linux
Half-Life: Blue Shift 2001 FPS expansion pack Windows, OS X, Linux
Half-Life: Decay 2001 FPS expansion pack PlayStation 2
Day of Defeat 2003 First-person shooter Windows, OS X, Linux
Counter-Strike: Condition Zero 2004 First-person shooter Windows, Xbox, OS X, Linux
Half-Life: Source 2004 First-person shooter Windows
Counter-Strike: Source 2004 First-person shooter Windows, OS X, Linux
Half-Life 2 2004 First-person shooter Windows, Xbox, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, OS X
Half-Life 2: Deathmatch 2004 First-person shooter Windows, OS X, Linux
Half-Life Deathmatch: Source 2005 First-person shooter Windows
Day of Defeat: Source 2005 First-person shooter Windows, OS X
Half-Life 2: Lost Coast 2005 First-person shooter Windows
Half-Life 2: Episode One 2006 First-person shooter Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, OS X
Half-Life 2: Episode Two 2007 First-person shooter Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, OS X
Portal 2007 FPS puzzle game Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, OS X, Linux
Team Fortress 2 2007 First-person shooter Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, OS X, Linux
Left 4 Dead 2008 First-person shooter Windows, Xbox 360, OS X
Left 4 Dead 2 2009 First-person shooter Windows, Xbox 360, OS X, Linux
Alien Swarm 2010 Top-down shooter Windows
Portal 2 2011 FPS puzzle game Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, OS X
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive 2012 First-person shooter Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, OS X
Dota 2 2013 Multiplayer online battle arena Windows, OS X

Cancelled games
The Crossing (to have been developed by Arkane Studios)
Prospero
Return to Ravenholm (a.k.a. Half-Life 2: Episode Four) (to have been developed by Arkane Studios)
Stars of Blood
Fairy
Steam
Main article: Steam (software)

 


Gabe Newell (foreground) and Doug Lombardi (background), 2007

Valve announced its games platform Steam in 2002. At the time it looked merely to be a method of streamlining the patch process common in online video games, but was later revealed as a replacement for much of the framework of the World Opponent Network service and also as a distribution/digital rights managementsystem for entire games.
Valve has shown support for some of their games. For example, Valve has offered considerable updates for Team Fortress 2; including adding new maps, new game modes, additional weapons, new achievements, and additional game play mechanics, as well adding a store which sells in-game items. All such updates, with the exception of the aforementioned in-game items, are mandatory, and provided free of charge.

There are over 1,400 games available on Steam, and in October 2010 Valve announced that it had surpassed 30 million active user accounts.

Steam console
In 2012, Valve announced that they were working on a console/pc hybrid for the living room which was unofficially dubbed by media as Steambox.Additionally, they provided funds to hardware manufacturer, Xi3, for them to make their own Steambox which was the Piston. In 2013, Valve distanced themselves from Xi3 and the Piston, further clarifying their lack of involvement.

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

Legal disputes
Valve vs. Vivendi case
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. 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 S. Zilly of U.S. Federal District Court in Seattle, Washington 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. Valve posted on the Steam website that the two companies had come to a settlement in court on April 29, 2005. Electronic Arts announced on July 18, 2005 they would be teaming up with Valve in a multi-year deal to distribute their games, replacing Vivendi Universal from then onwards. As a result of the trial, the arbitrator also awarded Valve $2,391,932.

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 vs 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.

Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. vs. Valve Corporation
Shortly after Valve filed its trademark for "Dota" to secure the franchising rights for Dota 2, DotA-Allstars, LLC, run by former contributors to the games's predecessor, Defense of the Ancients, filed an opposing trademark in August 2010. DotA All-Stars, LLC was sold to Blizzard Entertainment, the developer of DotA's platform Warcraft III and its world editor, in 2011. After the opposition was overruled in Valve's favor, Blizzard itself filed an opposition against Valve in November 2011, citing their license agreement with developers, as well as their ownership of DotA-Allstars, LLC. On May 11, 2012, Blizzard and Valve announced that the dispute had been settled. Valve retained the rights to the term "Dota" commercially, while Blizzard reserved the right for fans to use the trademark non-commercially, and changed the name of their new IP, Blizzard DOTA, to "Blizzard All-Stars".

Organizational structure
Valve is run as a flat organization without bosses. Yanis Varoufakis, an economist working for Valve, has attempted to place Valve's organization in the context of theories of the firm and broader economic thinking.

"Valve Time"
"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 actualrelease 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 and using it in announcements about such delays. Valve ascribes their delays to their mentality of team-driven initiatives over corporate deadlines to make sure they provide a high-quality product to their customers. Valve's 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." 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. The company does try to avoid unintentional delays of their projects, and believes that the earlier occurrences of "Valve Time" delays, primarily from Half-Life development, has helped them improve their release schedules.

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