Overview
- The company marked its 30th anniversary on Monday, August 24, 2026, having been founded in 1996 by former Microsoft engineers Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington.
- Valve established its early influence with Half-Life in 1998, a game that reshaped first-person shooters through scripted storytelling, level design and physics-based gameplay.
- Steam, launched in 2003 to deliver updates, grew into the dominant PC storefront by adding automatic patching, cloud saves, community features and a massive concurrent user base.
- After an earlier hardware misstep with Steam Machines, Valve found stronger traction with the Steam Deck handheld and newer mini-PC and VR efforts supported by faster SteamOS and Proton development.
- Valve’s tools and mod support turned community work into major franchises and helped set platform expectations for distribution and updates, a legacy that continues to shape developers, players and competitors.