Valve

Valve

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Updated Apr 17, 2020 at 01:35PM EDT by 3kole5.

Added Aug 14, 2011 at 05:31PM EDT by RandomMan.

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valve logo on red background

About

Valve Corporation (also known as Valve Software or simply Valve) is an American video game development and digital distribution company based in Bellevue, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1996 by former Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington, and made famous by its highly successful and critically acclaimed first product, Half-Life, released in November 1998. It is also well-known for its social-distribution network Steam, and for developing the Source engine, which it has used for every product since its introduction in 2004.

History

After the success of Half-Life, the team worked on mods, spin-offs, and sequels. The company has developed six game series: Half-Life, Team Fortress, Portal, Counter-Strike, Left 4 Dead and Day of Defeat. Valve is also the creator of the Steam network.

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Online Presence

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Fandom

Half-Life



Half-Life is a series of video games that share a science fiction alternate history. Nearly all of the games are first-person shooters on the Goldsource or Source engines, and most are linear, narrative, single-player titles. Each of these games feature Gordon Freeman as the main protagonist.

Portal

PORTAL


Portal is a single-player first-person action/puzzle video game developed by Valve Corporation, which was released on the October 9th, 2007. The game consists of beating levels by solving puzzles, with the aid of an “Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device”. The device allows the player to create two portals, of which they can use to solve the puzzles.

Within a matter of time, fans begun quoting the dialogue of the game. In-game items became subjects of real-life remakes by fans of the game.

Team Fortress

TEAM FORTRESS 2


Team Fortress 2 is a team-based FPS video game released by Valve in 2007. It came distributed as part of The Orange Box, along with Half Life 2 and Portal. The game's humor and cartoony graphics sets it apart from other shooters.

Garry's Mod

logo for Garry's Mod of a lowercase g on a blue background


Released in 2004, Garry’s Mod by Garry Newman or GMOD, is a physics sandbox modifaction of the Source engine. Models, characters, and more can be imported into Garry’s mod from most other games developed on the Source engine.

The GMOD has spawned many videos of people using it. But a number of GMOD users have created videos that garner viral activity, and spawn viral derivatives, which mutate from one generation to the next.

Valve Time

Valve time is a term which began in Valve's fan community and has since spread to the development community as a whole. Valve time refers to the company's longstanding tenancy to release games far later than they were originally announced, often being off the mark by a matter of years. Outside the Valve fandom, Valve time refers to any large difference between the announced released date and the actual release date. [1]

Valve itself has acknowledged the term, and now uses it when announcing release push-backs. They have even created a post on their development page chronicling the notable incidents: [2]

Valve Time ___ Actual Time ___ Item
October 1997 ___ August 28, 1998 ___ Release of Half-Life demo
November 1997 ___ November 19, 1998 ___ Release of Half-Life
"Soon" (1998), way before 2005 ___ October 10, 2007 ___ Release of Team Fortress 2
September 2003 ___ November 16, 2004 ___ Release of Half-Life 2
June 1, 2006 ___ October 10, 2007 ___ Release of Half Life 2: Episode 2
Christmas of 2007 ___ Coincident with the Rapture ___ Release of Half-Life 2: Episode 3


valve time watch

Valve has explained that its long development times result from a "when it's done" approach to game design. Due to its status as a privately owned company (as opposed to a publicly traded one), which it is able to retain due to its enormous sales, it has no shareholders pressuring it to release its games. As the development commentary on its more recent game also indicates, Valve also focus tests its games much more extensively than many other companies. These factors are the most prominent causes of Valve's schedule slippage.[3]

Valve's Snack Room

On April 24, 2011, the following video was uploaded to Youtube:


In the video Gabe Newell explains one of Valve's ways to appeal to new employees, the snack room. The video also shows an insight look into the snack room of Valve, which is extremely large and well stocked.

Valve Can't Count to 3

LEFT4 DEAD PORTAL 2 LEFT4 DEA PC PC DAYo DEFEAT PCé—† TEAM FORTRESS2 18- 16 ..a and soon DOTA 2 č™±/ Valve can' t count to 3!


This joke started with the above comic, showing that none of Valve's titles have the number 3 in it. For example: When Half-Life 2 was done, they started with the creation of two, shorter, episodic titles (Half-Life 2: Episode One and Half-Life 2: Episode Two). These also stopped after the second episode.[4] A final episode, Half-Life 2: Episode Three, has been confirmed to be the next installment of the series.

Search Interest

External References

[1] Valve Time – Complete Chart

[2] Valve – At TvTropes

[3] TvTropes – Schedule Slip

[4] Epicbrew (via Wayback Machine) – Valve can't count to 3

Recent Videos 38 total

Recent Images 80 total


Top Comments

PayPay from 5san
PayPay from 5san

Not even going to bother to read why this is trending. We all know. It's Artifact. We know it's Artifact that made this trend because other companies have done this before. To all those saying we should give it a chance and it might be a good game, you're half right, it might be. But the very concept of turning a MOBA into a card game is flawed, and to see that this is their big game, their big reveal after so little content and so much time is disheartening.

Come on people, we've seen this before. We've seen this same idea from Nintendo when they made Sticker Star and Federation Force. We saw this from Sony when they made the Emoji Movie. The core issue here is the concept. Nobody asked for a game like this. People have been begging for CSGO/TF2 content. For Portal 3, Left 4 Dead 3, and of course, the meme itself, HL3.

Valve's hiring policies are garbage. Despite growing massively, they refuse to hire the help they need to maintain their core games, they put all their workers on a failing VR console, they hurt their fans for a slight bit of luxury for their workers.

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