Valve Corporation

Who owns Valve?
Valve Corporation is privately owned by its employees and founder Gabe Newell. The company has no external investors and is not publicly traded.

What is Steam?
Steam is Valve's digital distribution platform for PC games, launched in 2003. It is the dominant PC game distribution platform with more than 130 million active users and tens of thousands of games.

Is Valve publicly traded?
No, Valve is privately held and has never gone public. Gabe Newell has stated that Valve has no plans to go public.

How many employees does Valve have?
Valve employs approximately 350 people, which is remarkably small for a company of its revenue and influence.

What is the Steam Deck?
The Steam Deck is a portable gaming PC released by Valve in 2022 that allows users to play their Steam game library on a handheld device. It runs a Linux-based operating system called SteamOS.

Valve was founded on August 24, 1996, by Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington, both former Microsoft employees. Newell had worked at Microsoft for 13 years and used his Microsoft stock options to fund the new company.

Valve's first game, Half-Life, was released in November 1998. Half-Life was a landmark first-person shooter that revolutionized the genre through its narrative-driven approach, seamless level design, and advanced AI. The game sold more than 9 million copies and won more than 50 Game of the Year awards.

Half-Life's modding community produced Counter-Strike, a multiplayer tactical shooter created by Minh Le and Jess Cliffe. Valve acquired Counter-Strike in 2000. Counter-Strike became one of the most popular multiplayer games in history and remains one of the most-played games on Steam today.

In 2003, Valve launched Steam, initially as a platform to distribute updates for its own games. Steam gradually expanded to include third-party games and became the dominant PC game distribution platform. Steam now hosts tens of thousands of games and has more than 130 million active users.

Valve released Half-Life 2 in 2004, which was another critical and commercial success. The game introduced the Source engine, which became the foundation for many subsequent Valve games and was licensed to other developers.

Valve launched Portal (2007), Team Fortress 2 (2007), Left 4 Dead (2008), and Dota 2 (2013), each of which became significant commercial and cultural successes.

In 2012, Valve launched Steam Greenlight (later replaced by Steam Direct), allowing independent developers to publish games on Steam. This democratized PC game publishing and contributed to the indie game boom of the 2010s.

Valve released Half-Life: Alyx in 2020, a VR-exclusive game that was widely praised as a landmark VR experience. The game demonstrated Valve's continued commitment to innovation in gaming technology.

In 2022, Valve released the Steam Deck, a portable gaming PC that allows users to play their Steam library on a handheld device. The Steam Deck has been commercially successful and has expanded Valve's hardware business.

Valve and Steam have faced regulatory scrutiny in multiple jurisdictions. In 2021, the European Commission opened an investigation into Steam's geo-blocking practices, which prevented users in some countries from activating games purchased in other countries at lower prices. Valve agreed to pay approximately 1.6 million euros to settle the investigation.

Steam's loot box mechanics (particularly in Counter-Strike) have attracted regulatory scrutiny in various countries regarding gambling concerns. Some countries have restricted or banned loot box mechanics.

Valve has faced criticism for its content moderation policies on Steam, particularly regarding the publication of controversial games.