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User:Simfish/Timeline of Valve Corporation

< User:Simfish

The following is a timeline of Valve Corporation

Big picture

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Time period Key developments at Valve
1996-2003 Valve is founded, and starts out by making games like Half-Life and Counter-Strike to great acclaim.
2004–2016 Valve debuts the release of the Source game engine, and releases Steam, which is about the digital distribution of games. This eventually dominates the market and reduces sales of physical PC games. Valve releases Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead 2. By 2015, users purchased titles through Steam or through Steam keys from third-party vendors totaling around $3.5 billion representing 15% of the global PC game sales for the year.[1]

Full timeline

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Year Month and date Event type Details
1996 August 24 Company Valve is founded by former longtime Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington.[2]
1998 November 19 Product Half-Life, a science fiction first-person shooter video game, is released.[2]
2000 January 15 Team Mike Harrington dissolves his partnership with Valve, giving Gabe Newell full control.[2]
2000 November 8 Product Counter-Strike, a multiplayer first-person shooter video game, is released.[2]
2002 August 14 Legal Valve sues Sierra for copyright infringement. As Sierra distributed Valve software at cyber cafes, it led to Sierra preventing Valve from letting players unlock Half-Life 2 early.[3]
2003 September 12 Product Valve releases the Steam client, which was created out of Valve's need to address issues with updating their online games.[2] Steam offers game producers gross margins of 70% of purchase price, compared with 30% at retail.
2004 June Product Source (game engine), a 3D video game engine developed by Valve Corporation as the successor of GoldSrc, debuts.[4]
2004 November 16 Product Half-Life 2 is released, receiving some of the best video game reviews of all time.[2]
2004 November 29 Legal Judge Thomas Samuel Zilly of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington rules in favor of Valve, stating 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' publishing agreement.[3]
2005 October Product Beginning with Rag Doll Kung Fu, third-party games became available for purchase and download on Steam.[5]
2007 March 16 Partnerships Eidos Interactive becomes the first major publisher to release its games through Steam.[6]
2007 August 7 Product Valve launches Steam Community, adding social networking features to Steam.[7]
2007 October 9 Product Portal (video game) is released.[8]
2007 October 10 Product Team Fortress 2, a team-based FPS, is released.[9]
2008 January 10 Acquisitions Valve announces the acquisition of Turtle Rock Studios, its first-ever acquisition.[10]
2008 January 29 Product Valve unveils Steamworks, a complete suite of publishing and development tools – ranging from copy protection to social networking services to server browsing. [11]
2008 May Product Valve announces that for the games it produces, digital sales from Steam will soon overtake physical sales.[12]
2008 July 10 Competition GOG.com, a competing digital distribution client to Steam (focused on old games), is released.[13]
2010 April Product Valve releases all of their major Source games on OS X, coinciding with the release of the Steam client on the same platform.
2011 June 3 Competition Origin (digital distribution software), a competitor client to Steam from Electronic Arts, is released.[14]
2011 August 1 Product Valve announces the first round of The International, a Dota 2 tournament.[15]
2012 March Team Valve hires Greek economics theory professor Yanis Varoufakis to study its in-game economies.[16][17]
2012 July Product Official Linux client for Steam is released.[18]
2012 International Valve opens its Luxembourg-based business office subsidiary for European regions, Valve S.a.r.l.
2013 July 9 Product Valve releases Dota 2, a free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game.[2]
2015 February 23 Product Valve announces that it will demonstrate a "SteamVR hardware system" (based on the HTC Vive) at the 2015 Game Developers Conference.[19][20][21]
2015 March 3 Product Valve announces the Source 2 engine, and that it will be free for developers.[22]
2015 November 10 Product Steam Machines (along with the Steam Controller) released for customers.[23][24] [25]

References

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  1. ^ "How the Biggest Player in PC Gaming Dominates Its Competition". Inc.com. Retrieved August 8, 2016.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "Valve Corporation (Company) - Giant Bomb". Giantbomb.com. Retrieved August 5, 2016.
  3. ^ a b "Valve Sues Activision Over Sierra Monies". Kotaku.com. Retrieved August 8, 2016.
  4. ^ "Welcome, Q3 source, Graphics". John Carmack's Blog. December 31, 2004.
  5. ^ Rich Stanton (August 21, 2012). "Full Steam Ahead: How Valve's Platform Just [Becomes] Hotter". Eurogamer. Retrieved May 4, 2015.
  6. ^ Robert Purchese (March 16, 2007). "Eidos Embrace Steam Power". Eurogamer. Retrieved May 23, 2015.
  7. ^ "Valve launches Steam Community, perhaps a bit soon". Ars Technica. Retrieved August 8, 2016.
  8. ^ "The Orange Box (PC)". Metacritic. Retrieved February 25, 2008.
  9. ^ Onyett, Charles (October 9, 2007). "Team Fortress 2 Review". IGN. Retrieved May 2, 2008.
  10. ^ "Valve Acquires Turtle Rock Studios" (Press release). Valve Corporation. January 10, 2008. Retrieved January 10, 2008.
  11. ^ "Valve". Valvesoftware.com. Retrieved August 9, 2016.
  12. ^ "Valve: Digital Sales Will Soon Top Retail Sales". Wired.com. Retrieved August 8, 2016.
  13. ^ Villasenor, Justin (July 10, 2008). "Good Old Games: Bringing classic PC games to an Internet near you". Destructoid. ModernMethod. Retrieved May 26, 2016.
  14. ^ "EA Launches 'Origin,' Downloadable Games Service". Wired.com. Retrieved August 7, 2016.
  15. ^ Sullivan, Lucas (1 August 2011). "Valve to hold $1,000,000 Dota 2 tournament at Gamescom". PC Gamer. Retrieved 22 February 2014.
  16. ^ "Valve hires economist to study virtual currency - GameSpot". Gamespot.com. Retrieved August 8, 2016.
  17. ^ "Valve, a Video Game Maker With Few Rules". The New York Times. Retrieved August 8, 2016.
  18. ^ "Steam'd Penguins". Valve Corporation. July 16, 2012. Retrieved July 24, 2013.
  19. ^ "Valve is making a VR headset and its own Steam Machine". Engadget. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  20. ^ "Valve showing off new virtual reality hardware and updated Steam controller next week". The Verge. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  21. ^ "Valve's VR headset revealed with Oculus-like features". The Verge. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  22. ^ "Valve announces Source 2 engine, free for developers". Polygon.com. Retrieved August 8, 2016.
  23. ^ Crossley, Rob (November 11, 2015). "First Three Steam Machines Released, Prices and Specs Detailed". GameSpot. Retrieved November 11, 2015.
  24. ^ Crecente, Brian (June 4, 2015). "The first official Steam Machines hit Oct. 16, on store shelves Nov. 10". Polygon. Retrieved June 4, 2015.
  25. ^ "Steam Power: Valve Corp. Partners Line Up". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved August 9, 2016.
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