s offices in bellevue washington formerly called valve l.l.c. 1996 2003 type private industry video game industry digital distribution founded august 24 1996 ; 20 years ago 1996 08 24 kirkland washington united states founders gabe newell mike harrington headquarters bellevue washington united states number of locations 2 offices area served worldwide key people gabe newell managing director products video games counter strike series dota 2 day of defeat series half life series left 4 dead series portal series team fortress series software goldsrc source steam steamos valve anti cheat vogl total equity us 2.5 billion 1 2012 number of employees 330 2 2013 subsidiaries valve s.a.r.l website www.valvesoftware.com valve corporation commonly referred to as valve is an american video game developer and digital distribution company headquartered in bellevue washington . founded in 1996 as a limited liability company by former microsoft employees gabe newell and mike harrington the company has developed the critically acclaimed half life counter strike portal day of defeat team fortress and left 4 dead video game series alongside dota 2 . it also developed and maintains source on which most of its games run and the software distribution platform steam which has led to the steam machine a line of pre built gaming computers running steamos . a luxembourg based office for european regions valve s.a.r.l was opened in 2012 . contents 1 history 1.1 founding and incorporation 1.2 half life 1.3 source game engine 1.4 acquisitions and awards 1.5 network intrusions 1.6 legal disputes 1.6.1 valve corporation v. vivendi universal games 1.6.2 valve corporation v. activision blizzard 1.6.3 blizzard entertainment v. valve corporation 1.6.4 accc v. valve corporation 1.6.5 ufc que choisir v. valve corporation 1.6.6 a.m. v. valve corporation 1.6.7 skins gambling 2 games 2.1 cancelled games 3 other projects 3.1 steam 3.1.1 steam machine 3.2 pipeline 3.3 j. j. abrams collaboration 3.4 htc vive 4 finances 5 organizational structure 6 valve time 7 powerplay 8 references 9 external links history 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 valve has grown both in scope and commercial value . on january 10 2008 valve announced the acquisition of turtle rock studios . 12 on april 8 2010 valve won the escapist magazine s march mayhem tournament for the best developer of 2010 13 beating out zynga in the semi finals and bioware in the final . in 2012 the company acquired star filled studios a two man gaming company to open a san francisco office . 14 in august 2013 however valve ended the operation when it was decided that there was little benefit coming from the arrangement . 15 network intrusions valve s internal network has been infiltrated by hackers three times once in 2003 where content of yet to be released half life 2 was leaked onto the internet 16 newell s email account was compromised and keyloggers were installed on several valve systems . 17 in 2011 the steam customer databases and official forums were compromised . 18 19 on september 2011 a hacker broke into the network and downloaded the yet to be released beta code of call of duty modern warfare 3 . 20 21 in 2014 a developer from scs software reported an exploit that allowed announcement pages to be injected with code and after no response he edited an announcement to redirect users to a harlem shake meme video . 22 23 24 in 2016 a vulnerability on the steam store allowed a user to publish a game without any authorization from valve . 25 26 legal disputes valve corporation v. vivendi universal games between 2002 and 2005 valve was involved in a complex legal showdown with its publisher vivendi universal games 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 samuel zilly of the u.s. district court for the western district of washington ruled in favor of valve . 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 caf s to end users for pay to play activities pursuant to the parties 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 . 27 valve posted on the steam website that the two companies had come to a settlement in court on april 29 2005 . 28 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 . 29 as a result of the trial the arbitrator also awarded valve 2 391 932 . valve corporation v. activision blizzard 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 v. 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 . 30 31 blizzard entertainment v. 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 game s predecessor defense of the ancients filed an opposing trademark in august 2010 . 32 dota allstars 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 . 33 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 starcraft ii map blizzard dota to blizzard all stars . 34 blizzard all stars was adapted into a standalone game and renamed heroes of the storm on october 17 2013 . 35 accc v. valve corporation the australian competition and consumer commission announced it was taking action against valve in 2014 . on march 29 2016 valve was found guilty of breaching australian consumer because 36 37 consumers were not entitled to a refund for digitally downloaded games purchased from valve via the steam website or steam client in any circumstances ; valve had excluded statutory guarantees and or warranties that goods would be of acceptable quality ; and valve had restricted or modified statutory guarantees and or warranties of acceptable quality . a hearing is scheduled for october 5 2016 to decide on action . ufc que choisir v. valve corporation consumer rights group ufc que choisir based in france filed a lawsuit against valve in december 2015 claiming users should be able to resell their software . 38 39 a.m. v. valve corporation a former employee filed a 3.1 million lawsuit in may 2016 alleging mistreatment after sex reassignment surgery and exploiting workers . 40 41 skins gambling main article skin gambling valve was named in a defendant in two lawsuits in june and july 2016 related to third party gambling sites that use the steamworks api to allow betting with the virtual currency of cosmetic weapon skins from counter strike global offensive which through these sites can be converted from or to real world money . both suits assert valve aiding in underaged gambling . 42 valve subsequently stated it has no commercial ties with these sites and that it would demand these sites cease their use of the steamworks api as they violate the authorized use policies . 43 44 in october 2016 the washington state gambling commission required valve to stop the use of virtual skins for gambling on steam stating they would face legal repercussions if they failed to cooperate . 45 games main article list of valve corporation video games cancelled games incomplete games include a fairy rpg 46 prospero 47 and stars of blood . 48 49 valve worked with arkane studios on the crossing which was canceled in may 2009 . arkane later tried to produce return to ravenholm a.k.a. half life 2 episode four without consensus by valve which was then also canceled . 50 51 52 other projects 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