GoKawiilValve Marks 30 Years Since Founding by Newell and Harrington
Valve, the studio behind Half-Life and Steam, was founded on August 24, 1996, by former Microsoft engineers Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington. The company released Half-Life in 1998, reshaping first-person shooter design, then launched Steam in 2003, establishing digital game distribution as an industry standard. Today the company celebrates its 30th anniversary with both products still shaping the industry.
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Steam remains the dominant PC game storefront despite competition from well-funded rivals like Epic Games, largely because Valve built early advantages into the platform such as modding support, achievements, and cloud saves. Half-Life's design innovations, meanwhile, set templates for narrative and AI design still used in shooters today, showing how a single small studio reshaped an entire industry's technical and business norms.
- Valve was founded in 1996 by ex-Microsoft engineers Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington.
- Half-Life (1998) redefined FPS design with scripted events, AI, and physics.
- Steam (2003) became the dominant PC game distribution platform, fending off rivals through features like Workshop mods and cloud saves.
Valve Steam Deck OLED Handheld — Thirty years after Half-Life, Valve's Steam Deck OLED puts your entire Steam library in your hands — the natural continuation of the PC gaming revolution the article celebrates. It runs SteamOS with a vibrant OLED screen and full controller inputs, so classics like Half-Life and modern releases both feel at home.
See Valve Steam Deck OLED Handheld on Amazon → Affiliate link — we may earn a commission on purchases, at no extra cost to you. Product picked by AI based on this article; it is not a tested recommendation.Source: tomshardware.com — Mark Tyson, 2026-08-24
Published there as: “Valve was founded 30 years ago today — changed PC gaming forever with Half-Life, then Steam”
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