Valve Software

Founded in1996 by Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington, Valve Software is a software and technology development company located in Bellvue, Washington. Valve established its reputation within the industry with the development and release of its first video game entitled, Half-Life.

Subsequent to its launch of Half-Life, Valve Software has released other successful games including: Counter-Striker, Team Fortress 2, Half-Life 2, Portal, Left 4 Dead, and Portal 2.

Valve Software has also developed the source engine used for video game development and as a digital content platform known as Steam.

Valve Software identifies its Steam gaming platform as being, "the world's largest online gaming platform." http://www.valvesoftware.com/company/ Steam allows PC-based users to immediately access a complete library of game titles. The system allows all of the games to be updated automatically in the background whenever an update becomes available the first time a user logs in.

There are currently 25 million active registered users utilizing the Steam platform. http://www.valvesoftware.com/company/ These users can interact with each other, monitor the gaming activity of others whom they have previously added to their friends list, and play one against the other. The steam platform is available in 21 different languages with regards to the user interface as well as online support literature.http://www.valvesoftware.com/company/

Valve Software has announced that compatibility with the Mac will soon become available through Steam.http://www.valvesoftware.com/company/

Valve Software has also developed and actively markets the Source game engine. Described by the company as, "the most flexible, comprehensive, and powerful game development environment available," this development tool for video games and other interactive software allows for the design and implementation of advanced character animation, shader-based rendering and real-world physics by developers.http://www.valvesoftware.com/company/