The "Valve*" Corporation is a Bellevue, Washington-based video game developer made famous by its first product, Half-Life, which was released in November 1998.  The company has continued in the footsteps of Half-Life's success by developing mods, spin-offs, and sequels including Half-Life 2.  

*Long-time Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington  founded Valve in 1996.  After securing a license to the Quake engine (through the help of friend Michael Abrash of id Software)  in late 1996, they commenced working on Half-Life. Originally planned for release in late 1997, Half-Life launched on October 31, 1998.  Valve acquired TF Software PTY Ltd., the makers of the Team Fortress mod for Quake with the intent to create a standalone Team Fortress 2  game. The Team Fortress Classic mod,  essentially a port of the original Team Fortress quake mod, was released for Half-Life in 1999; TF2 is still in development.

Valve continued work on Half-Life, releasing several more extensions to the game and collaborated with other developers to port it to other platforms. They also took on-board the development of the highly popular Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat Half-Life mods.

Half-Life is a science fiction first-person shooter computer game developed by Valve Software and published by Sierra Entertainment in 1998, based on a heavily-modified Quake game engine . It was first published for PCs  running Mircrosoft Windows,  and was later ported to Sony's PlayStation 2  and Sega's Dreamcast video game consoles,  although it was never officially released in the latter's case.

Half-Life, often shortened to HL, has been heralded by computer game critics for its gripping in-depth storyline, which would influence the development of other first-person shooters in the years to come. It was among the first games to feature a story that was told entirely in-game and in real time, without the use of cutscenes. Half-Life is also known for its (at the time) sophisticated enemy AI. 

Before TFC there was Team Fortress, a 1996 Quake World mod. TF's developers were working on Team Fortress 2 as a standalone game, but later joined Valve Software and ported  the original as a mod for Half-Life called Team Fortress Classic in April of 1999.   Despite the company's 1998 statement that Team Fortress 2: Brotherhood of Arms would be released "soon," the game is still supposedly in development and has been on Wired magazine's top ten vaporware list every year since 2001.

Team Fortress History

Valve Software is a relatively young development house compared to some. It was all started in 1996 and over the last ten years we've seen a lot of history. Probably the most interesting history, however, is that of the development of the Team Fortress series. Contrary to popular belief the game dates back to before Half-Life was even released. Team Fortress as most of you know is a modification to Half-Life, however, the original was released in August 1996 as a modification to Quake. Developed by Robin Walker, John Cook and Ian Caughley, later known as the aptly named Team Fortress Software, 'Quake Team Fortress' very quickly became a popular game.

Later on in 1996, Team Fortress was released for QuakeWorld, a specially optimised version of Quake for online play only. The mod expanded and its player base grew week by week, leading to game distributors contacting the team about creating a commercial project. They soon began work on what they called Team Fortress 2 as a commercial expansion to the Quake II engine. This was when the team was contacted by Valve Software to see if they'd make Team Fortress 2 as an add on for the Half-Life engine. They were incredibly impressed by the Half-Life engine and what Valve had done and so their decision was made; Team Fortress 2 would be an add-on for Half-Life but would become Team Fortress Classic.

Soon after, Valve made the guys an offer to merge with them, quickly developing Team Fortress 2 from an add-on to a standalone project. In 1999 this project became known as Team Fortress 2: Brotherhood of Arms. This new game would change Team Fortress into a gritty realistic warfare game with a number of new innovations such as networked voice communications and a commander with a birds eye view of the battlefield.

TF2: Brotherhood of Arms looked promising until 2000 when all media just stopped aside from the occasional developer chat and rehashed previews going over year-old information. Valve refused to comment on the progress of the title and nobody knew what was going to happen with it. Had it been canned? Was it still in development? Nobody knew, all except Valve of course.

Nothing was heard for over three years until those magical early days back in 2003 where we finally heard about Half-Life 2 and the Source engine. It was finally clear why we hadn't heard anything. The game was definitely still in development but it had been made quiet to keep it secret about them developing it on a brand new engine and to keep the secret about HL2.

Another three years go by and again nothing until Summer 2006. It was at the EA Summer Showcase the new Team Fortress 2 was unveiled by Valve, a bright cartoon styled affair going back to the old Team Fortress Classic gameplay. A new release date was also announced - Summer 2007. Having been waiting for the last ten years for the actual release of Team Fortress 2 it still remains to be seen if it will ever be played by us fans.

Team Fortress 2 will be packed as the multiplayer component of Half-Life 2: Episode Two which is due to be released in Summer 2007 along with Valve's Portal.

Team Fortress 2 (TF2 for short) is the long-anticipated sequel to the original Team Fortress mod for Quake.  It is currently being developed by Valve Software. It is to be a multiplayer team-based first-person shooter  and is expected to be released over Valve's online distribution system, Steam. The current state of the game's direction is unknown; however, as of 1999, the game appeared to be deviating from the original Team Fortress and heading towards a more realistic and militaristic direction. It is expected to feature "classes" like those found in Team Fortress and Team Fortress Classic. 

Steam and Lawsuits

Valve announced its Steam content delivery system in 2002. At the time, it looked to be a method of streamlining the patch  process common in online computer games.  Steam was later revealed as a replacement for much of the dated framework of WON and Half-Life multiplayer and also as a distribution system for entire games.

Between 2002 and 2005, Valve was involved in a complex legal showdown with its publisher, Sierra Entertainment  (which was later bought by Vivendi Universal Games, or VUG). It officially began on August 14, 2002  when Valve sued Sierra for copyright infringement, alleging that the publisher illegally distributed copies of their games to Internet cafes.  They later added claims of breach of contract,  accusing their publisher of withholding royalties and delaying the release of Counter-Strike: Condition Zero until after the holiday season.

Vivendi fought back, saying that Gabe Newell and marketing director Doug Lombardi had misrepresented Valve's position in meetings with the publisher. Vivendi later countersued, claiming that Valve's Steam content distribution system attempted to circumvent their publishing agreement. VUG sought intellectual property rights to Half-Life and a ruling preventing Valve from using Steam to distribute Half-Life 2.

On Novermber 29, 2004, Judge Thomas S. Zilly of U.S. Federal District Court in Seattle, WA ruled in favor of Valve Corporation. Specifically, the ruling stated that Vivendi Universal Games 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' current publishing agreement. In addition, Judge Zilly ruled that Valve could recover copyright damages for infringements without regard to the publishing agreement's limitation of liability clause.

On April 29,2005, Valve posted on the Steam website that the two companies had come to a settlement in court.  article

Sunday, October 19, 2008 06:52 PM