Industry Profile: Valve

It is difficult to imagine the gaming microcosm without the innovative gameplay flourishes of Portal or Left for Dead's brilliant AI director. These games came from the minds of a company called Valve, who continues to develop mechanical and design innovations thanks largely to its close relationship with the Mod community.

The brainchild of Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington, Valve was founded on August 24th 1996. They immediately began working on the game Half Life with fervor after acquiring a license for the Quake engine. The game launched with success on Nov 19th 1998. Valve is responsible for the birth of six franchises including Half Life, Team Fortress, Portal, Counter Strike, Left 4 Dead and Day of Defeat. Valve is also noted for its direct download PC game service, Steam which was announced in 2002. Initially looked at as a superb patch approach for Valve's PC games, it has proved itself to be a huge asset to online gaming, replacing much of the framework for Half Life multiplayer and eventually distributing entire games. On Nov. 17th, 2009, Valve released Left 4 Dead 2 amid some controversy. Criticized for being released almost exactly one year from its predecessor, critics argued that not enough time had passed to warrant a sequel and that Valve should have offered this as downloadable content or at the very least built further on the framework of the previous game. Despite early protests, such as calls for a boycott, sales of the sequel have outpaced the original, and reviews have been generally positive, noting that many of the improvements and changes could not have been done using a traditional patch or expansion pack, including advancements in the AI direction, varied new gameplay mechanics, and an overall slicker, gorier stage to present this personalized survival horror adventure.

Valve is currently known to be working on Half Life 2: Episode 3, a continuation of their trademark franchise, as well as other games that they have not yet revealed. All current Valve games operate on the Source Engine.