Valve Corporation

Valve Corporation, also known as Valve Software, is an American video game developer, publisher, and digital distribution company headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. It is the developer of the software distribution platform Steam and the Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Portal, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress, Left 4 Dead, and Dota series.

Valve was founded in 1996 by former Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington. Its debut product, the first-person shooter Half-Life (1998), was a critical and commercial success, after which Harrington left the company. In 2003, Valve launched Steam, which accounted for around half of digital PC game sales by 2011. In the 2010s, Valve began developing hardware, such as the Steam Machine and Steam Deck brand of gaming PCs, as well as the HTC Vive and Valve Index virtual reality headsets. By 2012, Valve employed around 250 people and was reportedly worth over US$3 billion, making it the most profitable company per employee in the United States. It uses a flat structure, whereby employees decide what to work on themselves.