Valve Corporation



Valve Corporation (commonly referred to as Valve) is an American video game development and digital distribution company headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, United States. Its European-based office opened in 2012 in Luxembourg. Founded in 1996 as "Valve Software" 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, Left 4 Dead and Dota video game series. It also developed and maintains the Source engine 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.

Games

 * Counter-Strike (1999)
 * Counter-Strike: Condition Zero (2004)
 * Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (2012)
 * Counter-Strike: Source (2004)
 * Left 4 Dead (2008)
 * Left 4 Dead 2 (2009)
 * Team Fortress 2 (2007)

Steam
Main article: Steam

Valve announced its games platform Steam in 2002. At the time it looked merely to be a method of streamlining the patchprocess common in online video games, but was later revealed as a replacement for much of the framework of the World Opponent Network service and also as a distribution/digital rights management system for entire games.

Valve has shown support for some of their games. For example, Valve has offered considerable updates for Team Fortress 2; including adding new maps, new game modes, additional weapons, new achievements, and additional game play mechanics, as well adding a store which sells in-game items. All such updates, with the exception of the aforementioned in-game items, are mandatory, and provided free of charge.

As of July 2014, there are over 3,400 games available on Steam, and in January 2014 Valve announced that it had surpassed 75 million active user accounts.

On August 1, 2012, Valve Corporation announced revisions to the Steam Subscriber Agreement (SSA) to prohibit class action lawsuits by users against the service provider.

Alongside these changes to the SSA, the company also declared publicly the incorporation of Valve S.a.r.l., a subsidiary based in Luxembourg. Valve set up a physical office in Luxembourg Kirchberg, according to Valve's project manager Mike Dunkle, the location was chosen for eCommerce capabilities and infrastructure, talent acquisition, tax advantages and its central geographic locations – most major partners are accessible with 50% within driving distance.

Valve S.A.R.L is used to sell games to United Kingdom–based users to avoid paying the full 20% VAT. The tax loophole was expected to be closed on January 1, 2015.