On August 24th 1996 Valve first started out as a company founded by Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington. Since its founding to the present day, Valve has been one of the most influential video game companies of all time, changing the face of gaming and how we interact and use services. In this thread I will try and summarise Valve's history and showcase its accomplishments over the past 20 years. This post is more or less in chronological order of Valves history, however some parts may discuss events at a later date due to updates or ongoing projects.
If you found this thread interesting then check out my thread on 10 years of Steam.
Both Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington were both Microsoft employees who worked on software development on the Windows platform. During this time working under Microsoft meant that both individuals had accumulated millions and started having ideas on setting up their own game company. A mutual friend introduced them to John Carmack who licensed them the Quake engine. The development team at Valve started to tinker with the engine and began focusing on creating a deeper game experience with characters with narrative purpose rather than scripted cut scenes.
Valve initially found it quite difficult to find a publisher for the game, considering they were still a fledgling developer with no track record of success before, However Sierra On-Line offered the company a 1 game deal. Valve showed off HL1 in 1997s E3, critics were absolutely floored on what they saw in the game with its advanced animation and AI. The games released was supposed to be a late 97 release but Valve decided to delay the game for another year to make improvements on the engine, this nearly tanked the partnership between Sierra and Valve as Sierra had already started advertising the game as a 97 release.
Half-Life told the story of a scientist called Gordon Freeman who works at a facility called Black Mesa. During one particular science experiment a catastrophic event causes a portal to appear in the facility that opens rift for alien life forms to cross over into earth. Freeman equipped with HEV suit must try and make it out the facility and close the rift that has opened.
The game released on November 8 1998 to critical acclaim and winning over 50 game of the year awards with an average score of 96/100 on metacritic. IGN defined it as the one of the most important games every released and the definitive FPS game. Many critics were floored by its narrative style of including the player in the story and immersing them into the world. The game was prised for its amazing polish and level design, compared to everything out there at the time, Half-Life was a generation ahead of everything else. Half-Life managed to sell well over 10 million copies and to this day, Half-Life is considered as one of the greatest PC games of all times.
Valve continued their success with modders who started to create their own game using GoldSrc. One of the most famous mods of all time was Counter-Strike which was developed by Minh Le and Jesse Cliff. Valve hired both of the modders and in 2000 released a standalone version of the game which has become one of the greatest online FPS game of all time with 25 million copies shipped (including source). Its a testament that this game is still played today by hundreds of thousands of players.
Valve hired more modders into the Valve ecosystem which helped them immensely. Soon they had ported games such as Day of Defeat and Team Fortress into GoldSrc, Valve also partnered with Gearbox who made two expansion packs for the Half-Life series called Opposing Force and Blue Shift. Valve also released Ricochet during 2000.
After the amazing success of Half-Life valve knew they needed to come up with a sequel, the game took nearly 6 years to develop with major complications along the way. The game was even leaked before it was released before it was even ready by a hacker, not to mention delays and re-development of certain aspects of the game.
Valve during the time after HL1, created a new engine for Half-Life 2 called Source. This engine was revolutionary at the time allowing advanced graphical effects that were unheard of at that time. The Source engine had it\s own physics engine to manipulate objects, this was showcased with the Gravity Gun in Hl2. The Engine also featured advanced facial animation and intelligent AI for the time. The Source engine is still used by Valve and by other 3rd parties with its openness to modders, however some have criticized it he Hammer SDK as being outdated and troublesome to get into development with the tools..
The game followed Gordan Freeman who was placed in stasis and being woken up by G-Man 10 years later to a world ruled by the Combine. Goran Freeman is rescued by the by Barney Gumble who helps escape to the resistance headquarters where Freeman is tasked with helping the resistance. Valve worked even on working on immersing the player into its cinematic universe, players are treated to word that actually felt oppressive and saw what effect it had on NPCs traversing through the city.
The game released in 2004 to critical acclaim much like its predecessor. The graphics were nothing seen before and even blew Doom 3 out of the water. Its advanced animation and AI were simple outstanding especially in open area battles with Combine and other creatures. However, the main star of the show was the Gravity Gun which broke up the combat with puzzles as well as utilising it as a weapon to the players desire. The game received 39 game of the year awards and matching the same metacritic score of the last game. The game has sold over 12 million copies and like its predecessor been heralded as the greatest PC game of all time.
Valve also introduced Steam in 2003 for the 1.6 update in Counter-Strike. Steam was supposed to act as a way to give player updates and manage their game library initially. However, the early days of Steam were troublesome at best with Half-Life 2, many players who had pre-loaded the game were unable to play the long awaited sequel which angered many people. Valve has learned from these lessons and after a couple of years introduced a DD store, valve continued to work on Steam and has vastly improved its functionality. Today it stands as one of the biggest online gaming service with over 125 million registered users. Steam has become one of Valves greatest success stories even surpassing the profits Valve games have made.
Valve released the next part of Half-Life in 2006 called Episode 1. This timeframe was a lot shorter for valve as they were hoping to create mini expansions for the franchise that would be out in regular intervals rather than waiting years for a sequel. Episode 1 was greatly appreciated by the community for allowing gamers to carry on the Half-Life franchise so soon after the 2nd instalment. Unfortunately, this model was dropped after Episode 2 as Valve found it hard to maintain or carry on with the HL franchise.
The release of The Orange Box in 2007 saw Valve move away from their trusted Half-Life series with two new games called Portal and TF2, while HL2:EP2 was a major crowning achievement in the series, the success of the other games in the package where more to Valve in the long run, The Orange Box offered five games in total which was deemed amazing value at the time. It was also the first time Valve went with a. Multiplatform release on the 360 and PS3, the 360 wash developed in house by Valve, however the PS3 version was done by EA and had frame rate issues. Reviews praised the quality of the package and the value it offered with new games.
Team Fortress 2 was a new spin of the old classic that was originally ported to the Gold Source engine, TF2 was considered in limbo as being one of the most delayed games from Valve with several versions of the game being made before the development team decided on what the game should be. With the sequel the game adopted. A 60's inspired cartoon feel to the game which stood out of the military shooters that reigned during that time. The game was praised for its unique class system and team focused multiplayer as well as it's visual style. Team fortress 2 is still currently beefing played and has been one of the longest supported Valve games with monthly updates on the series with new updates and content for the game. Controversially TF2 was the first game by Valve that went ''F2P', many long term players were angry that Valve was offering a game free when many loyal fans had paid for the game. Other fears. Included the effect on the community and increase of cheaters being able to create new accounts for free. However most of these issued are non-existent today and TF2 and it's currently one of the most played games on Steam. One interesting thing about TF2 is the fact that game has a deep lore for a multiplayer game, Valve have branched out each character with a backstory through their 'meet the team' shorts, and comics. The community has also played a big role with development of items and the marketplace has grown exponentially with weapons and customisation of characters, in this case with novelty hats.
Portal was the other standout game from The Orange Box, a short FPS puzzle game which relied on your solving problems using a device that could change the physical properties of walls as pathways to enter in and out of. Valve garnered the idea for Portal after going to the annual DigiPen Institute of Technology fair where it saw the game called Narbacular Drop. Valve hired the students who made the game and began working on Portal. 10 people worked on the game for just over 2 years and Valve decided it was the perfect fir the orange box to test how a fps puzzle game would fair. To everyones surprise it became the standout game of The Orange Box, even though it was less than 3 hours the puzzle concept and its narrative black humour instantly turned it into a cult hit. Interestingly Valve decided to hold the Portal universe inside the Half-Life universe. This would be later delved into further in Portal 2.
Half-Life 2: Episode 2 was also a hit, with its improved combat and greater open areas for combat. Many also praised the game for its development in the story telling for the franchise and learning it on one the biggest cliff hangers in gaming. Unfortunately, valve has not gone back to Half-Life Universe since Episode 2 with no major hints on what Valve has been doing over the last 9 years on the game have made many fans desperate for information on what happens to Gordon Freeman next. Ironically footage of Half-Life 2: Episode 4 was leaked online and showed playable parts, this was developed by Arkane Studios but for some reason the game was scrapped.
Overall The Orange Box was a huge success for Valve, it showcased it could work on new IPs other than Half-Life. The Orange box introduced new updated to Steam with achievements fort Valve games.
During 2008 Valve released Left 4 Dead, a zombie apocalypse game with an emphasis on 4 player cooperative play. The game initially developed by Turtle Rock studios in 2005 and was going to be released in early 2008. However, Turtle Rock was acquired by Valve and the game was later released at the end of 2008. During this time of acquisition, the game saw changes to the character design and the game mechanics. The game was released to critical acclaim. Becoming the bestselling game for Valve at that time. Left 4 Deads most notable feature was the AI Director, a system that changed gameplay depending to the teams progress which changed item spawning and difficulty of the game which allowed play through to be random. The source engine was also updated to have better lighting effects and being able to render many NPCs in a scene and increase their intelligence as we see with the special infected. The game was also released for the 360 as well, however there was no PS3 version. The game was a huge hit with the players and showcased yet again how to add deep and meaningful characters in a multiplayer game. Left 4 Dead received multiple accolades for multiplayer OGTY and is now a cult hit for many gamers.
To everyones surprise in 2009 Valve announced in 2009, only one year after the first game. Initially this caused a huge uproar with the community, many were angry that Valve would release a game considering the first was only just released and many felt that it was going to split the community apart. This was one of the biggest outrages seen by Valve, a boycott group was even set up on Steam with thousands of players signing up to the group. Valve responded that the original game was still going to be supported and even managed to get the boycott group founders to come to their studios and quelled their issues about the game. L4D2 actually had more pre-orders than the first game and more people who joined the boycotting group bought more copies than the general steam community. Both games continued to get free updates, however Steam stats show that L4D1 player count is vastly smaller than L4D2.
After The Orange Box and two Left 4 Dead games many fans expected Valve to go back to their roots. Instead Valve released a freeware game in 2010 called Alien Swarm, valve hired the mod team behind the Unreal mod a few years ago and they released the game in the source engine. While a low key event it was appreciated by the community for its 4 players cooperative play.
Valve had been busy trying to think of a Portal successor since 2007. Gabe Newell had an idea to shut down all work going on Valve for the company to start working on their own projects for a few months. One of the ideas generated during this time was called F-STOP, Valve spent one year working on this concept before scrapping it. It took Valve a couple of jump starts before it saw Tag: The Power of Paint, this game was made another bunch DigiPen students who were later hired by Valve to work on Portal 2. Portal 2 incorporated the gel physics of Tag and extend the game with a separate cooperative campaign with two players. The game was released in 2011 to critical acclaim, with multiple game of the year awards including NeoGAFs 2011 GOTY award. It was praised for its new concepts brought into the puzzles and retaining its humour of the original with its comical narrative. The Cooperative campaign was also praised and Valve supported the game with updated Hammer SDK tools to create you own levels which much easier to use for beginners.
Valve surprised the FPS community by stating that it was working on a new Counter-Strike game called Global Offence. This game created by Hidden Path Entertainment was an updated version of CS in the latest source engine, the game was going for a multiplatform release on all 7th generation consoles. The game released with positive reviews however it stalled as with CS:S in play count compared to the original CS. Valve then started to gradually update the game with more competitive features and updates. Today as is stands it has over 250,000 players playing at any one time.
DOTA 2 was released in 2013 after some time in a public beta, it was a bit of a shift from Valve who were more famous for creating FPS centric titles. Valve hired IceFrog in 2009 who was the key lead design of DotA: All Stars. A legal dispute however erupted between Blizzard and Valve over the name, many thought that DOTA should belong to the community and not be under commercial constraints, Valve won the case and allowed 3rd parties to utilize the DOTA name for non-commercial use. The public beta of the game was slowly rolled out with many struggling to get a place into the beta. Valve quickly realised they were onto a winner when the game surpassed all other Valve titles in play count on Steam stats, currently at its peak on a daily basis it has over 1 million players playing. The game was designed to be F2P from the gerund up but allowed all Heroes to be unlocked at the start. The game was a critical hit with reviewers commenting the deep learning curve and its balance and keeping to what made the original DOTA such an enriching experience. Its very likely that DOTA 2 is Valves most successful title of all time with its own funded tournament hosted by Valve it is currently one of the most played games in the world.
One interesting point to notice during this time period between 2006-2013 is the fact that Valve actually released manged to release at least one game for each consecutive year, in 7 years it had released 9 games; Half-Life 2 Episode 1 (2006), Half-Life 2 Episode 2 (2007), Team Fortress 2, (2007), Portal (2007), Left 4 Dead (2008), Left 4 Dead 2 (2009), Alien Swarm (2010), Portal 2 (2011), Counter-Strike: Global Offence (2012) and DOTA 2 (2013).
It was known for a couple of years that Valve was working an on a Linux version of Steam, however information was scarce about it, fans were optimistic considering a OSX client for Steam was released in 2010. Valve later revealed in late 2013 that it was working on SteamOS for Steam Machines - a Linux based operating system that would use Steam for its Steam Machines. Valve intimal goals were to create a platform that was not going to be tied down to Windows and a platform more suited towards people who wanted to play games in the living room. SteamOS can honestly be called a fledgling project within Valve and still a work in progress. Many issues such as support and performance in OpenGL games meant that many PC vendors who were making Steam Machines opted windows instead.
With the official realise of Steam Machines in 2015 we also saw two new hardware pieces; the Steam Link and Steam Controller. The Steam Link was a way for PC gamers to stream their PC games from their PC to the TV. The Steam Controller was a revolutionary controller that used two haptic feedback touchpads to allow gamers to play PC games without relying on a Keyboard and mouse. The controller went into a beta with several variations of changes before the final design. The interesting thing about the controller is the fact you can use custom button layouts for games that players upload to Steam catering to different play styles. Overall both of these products were generally applauded by gamers
Valve in 2015 announced its own VR tech, co-developed with HTC the new VR headset was called VIVE. Compared to other VR headsets the VIVE would use the space in the room to allow players to interact in a 3D space. The VR headset stood out from the competitors for its technological achievement and capabilities winning over 22 awards. On release on March 2016 there are over 100 games for the device with many seniors developers such as EPIC and even NASA jumping on board. The HTC VIVE is still in its early days but Valve has put a lot of its workforce behind the project and are heavily invested in it succeeding in the marketplace, although its unclear if Valve will ever release a dedicated game in the future for the device other than The Lab which was a tech demo.
Valve is still a company clouded in secrecy, so its nearly impossible to predict what they will do next. The most likely project in development at the moment is L4D3. Many developers are currently working on L4D3 under the premise of L4D2, it was spotted that some Valve developers were playing a lot of L4D2 but had not accumulated any stats within the game. With the updated engine in Source 2 and how much Valve has been in supporting multiplayer games it makes sense that L4D3 will be their next game relapse.
As for Half-Life 3, well its still up in the air, as far as we can tell its being worked on but there is no definite answer on when this game will be released. Fans of the game have trawled through thousands of game updates for various IPs of Valve over the last decade, with each giving snippets of what HL3 could entail. What we know so far is that there is a small team working on the game. Illustrations suggests it will be placed somewhere in a cold northern environment and that game may feature RPG elements. Gabe mentioned a year ago that gamers expect more than just single player, calling it single player plus, this could mean social elements in the game or cooperative play. Its clear that HL3 is in development hell and Valve have scrapped quite a few concepts already on what the next instalment should be about. Some fans have claimed that there is lack of interest by Valve or little incentive to work on smaller projects compared to DOTA 2 or TF2 where is more rewards within the company.
Other future games may include VR, currently stated by one developer at Valve said that 1/3 of Valve staff are involved in VR. While Valve has denied in HL3 being a VR exclusive game, Valve have been pushing a lot into VR development within Unity and creation of its postcards. Valve has also been pushing hardware, we are expected to see a 2nd version of the steam controller with minor changes. In terms of game updates, we are still expecting to see updates to CS:GO, DOTA 2 and TF2 which will most likely get anniversary update next year.
Overall Valve has consistently defied expectations of gamers and has risen to the top of gaming industry with its plethora of hit titles and changing the face on how we purchase games. Its a company that continues to take risks and unafraid to do new things. Its a company with a huge following of dedicated fans around the world and has created one of the biggest gaming platforms in the world with millions of players. Valve hasnt been in the limelight these past couple of years but when they do you know it will be worth the wait.
Thanks for reading, if you found this thread interesting then check out my thread on 10 years of Steam.
