VALVE CORPORATION
ABOUT VALVE A private video game company and distributor of digital media. It’s headquarters are in Belleview Washington Has over 400 employees Its equity is approximately $2.5 Billion a year. Famous for its “Steam Engine” and for making the video games Half-Life Left for Dead Won the Escapist Magazine best developer of 2010.
Founding Founded in 1996 on Kirkland Washington, US by Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington Now located at: Bellevue Washington, US
ABOUT GABE NEWELL Worked as a producer for Microsoft corp. for 13 years. In 1996, alongside colleague Mike Harrington, left Microsoft to create Valve. Background in Microsoft helped Valve start out with a relationship with Microsoft and Gearbox (famous for Borderlands). Relationship with these companies would forever affect Valve.
VALVE Became a respected company in 1998 when it created the game Half-Life. After Half-Life the company went on to create other famous games (from 1998 to present) Team Fortress Portal Counter- Strike Left For Dead Dota 2
NEW VENTURES In 2001 the Valve went online and launched its online page, and through it gave us Steam. Steam made Valve corporation the famous distributor of media that it has become.
WHAT STEAM IS A online distribution program where customers can buy pc games and entertainment software. (similar to iTunes) Allows the public to access their games and software from any computer, Linux, or mobile device around the world. Allows independent game developers to sell their games
WHY STEAM IS BETTER THEN THE REST Offers bundles and packages that other game distributors wouldn't. Steam sales would have games from different publishers at 50-75% off. Has over 2,000 games to choose from. Gamers connect with over 40 million users. They can form groups Exchange items Even create new content for games Steam players obtain tools to develop personal things (sort of like DLCs) for their own games: items, clothes, etc
The Steam Engine First introduced in 2004 in their new game Half-Life2 After their success on Half-Life 2 every game they have made after that runs on Steam Independent publishers were able to use it to create their own games
THE STEAM BOX In 2012 announced the current development of the Steam Box was announced Will be a mixture of a computer system and a console game that will run in their new Steam OS Will work with the Steam engine Will be able share games with friends Have parental controls Will have the option to live stream gameplay Its design is made to eliminate the use of disk space, since the games will be online
THE STEAM BOX
Its revolutionary because unlike other controllers it wont feature analog sticks but instead touch pads. VALVE CONTROLLER Will try to feel more like a keyboard with buttons on the back.
Valve is owned by Gave Newell and Mike Harrington and is not listed in the Stock Exchange. Currently Valve’s strongest competitors are GameStop corp. Gamefly corp. Electronic Arts Inc.
VALVE’S BRIGHT FUTURE Valve’s rise in commercial value allowed it to buy Turtle Rock studios in : creation of Pipeline Intern project for high school students to learn how to create video games. In 2013 announced that it had a deal with director Peter Jackson to make a movie of Portal or Half-Life. 3. This Bloomberg BusinessWeek announced that Apple is in the midst of talks to purchase Valve.
SWOT Strength Weakness Opportunities Threats
STRENGTH Due to their experience from working with Microsoft they had connections with other publishers With no chair holders the owners are able to do anything they want without consent of others except those in head of department. Well known for their source engine which they use in all their games
WEAKNESS Due to their games and publishing they’ve had a few incident and copyright claims some with Blizzard, Inc Viviendi Universal Due to new consoles having same hardware as current computers, it affects sales on computer games because gamers are now able to play high res games on their TV consoles taken away sales from computer games.
OPPORTUNITIES They are constantly updating their programs and always keeping up to date with current competitors They are always expanding and are interested in trying new things They are always looking for new talented people They offer tutorials for those who want to start getting into game design
THREATS Other big publishing companies such as: Gamefly RedBox EA
CITATION Article Bernstein, Mark. "10 Tips on Writing the Living Web." A List Apart: For People Who Make Websites. A List Apart Mag., 16 Aug Web. 4 May Edwards, Cliff. “Valves Steam Machine Join Game Console War.” BloombergBusinessWeek, BusinessWeek.com, Online. Published November 13, Accessed, November 15, Hoovers, “Valve Competitors” information/cs/competition.Valve_Corporation.92ff360a341fdd05.htmlhttp:// information/cs/competition.Valve_Corporation.92ff360a341fdd05.html Alec Kubas-Meyer, “Will Valve’s New Steam Controller Revolutionize Video Game Play?”, revolutionize-video-game-play.html, Online, Published September 27th 2013 Tom Risen, “Valve Gaming Console Targets Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Xbox” Images
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