Monday, August 24th 2026
Valve Celebrates 30 Years of Revolutionizing PC Gaming
On August 24, 1996, Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington officially founded Valve, forever changing the world of PC gaming. The company made a massive debut in 1998 with Half-Life, stepping into the realm of legendary PC game franchises. Later on, Valve started creating a variety of games like Dota, Counter-Strike, Artifact, Team Fortress, Left 4 Dead, Portal, and many more, all of which became staple releases and gained a worldwide following.
In 2003, the company officially entered the game distribution arena by launching Steam, now regarded as the leading PC gaming client software and the top destination for games, deals, promotions, and launches. With hundreds of millions of players across the globe, the Steam platform has become the largest PC gaming community on the planet. At its peak, Steam has achieved more than 40 million concurrent gamers online, meaning that at one point, 40 million enthusiasts were playing their favorite games, all purchased, downloaded, and managed through Steam.
Valve has also made significant progress over the years with its hardware launches. Initially, Valve introduced the concept of the Steam Machine as the ultimate gaming box, with partners designing hardware to support SteamOS. This was back in 2015 when the hardware was relatively weak, and support from partners was lackluster, leading to its discontinuation in 2018. However, it was not completely abandoned. In 2021, Valve brought its hardware design in-house and launched the Steam Deck handheld console. This year, they updated their hardware portfolio with the Steam Machine, Steam Deck, and the upcoming Steam Frame. More releases and updates are planned, the hardware is selling well, and Steam continues to experience massive growth. For 30 years, Valve has achieved amazing results, and we can't wait to see what the coming years will bring.
In 2003, the company officially entered the game distribution arena by launching Steam, now regarded as the leading PC gaming client software and the top destination for games, deals, promotions, and launches. With hundreds of millions of players across the globe, the Steam platform has become the largest PC gaming community on the planet. At its peak, Steam has achieved more than 40 million concurrent gamers online, meaning that at one point, 40 million enthusiasts were playing their favorite games, all purchased, downloaded, and managed through Steam.
65 Comments on Valve Celebrates 30 Years of Revolutionizing PC Gaming
See what happened to countless games when EA or Ubi decided to shut down the servers.
Even without bringing servers into question, this is from Hollow Knight's EULA:Here's the full EULA: store.steampowered.com/eula/590970_eula_0 (spoiler alert, it does not say you own anything).
Edit: For bonus points, the EULA includes this: "FE reserves the right to amend this EULA at FE sole discretion". Meaning that whatever license you think you "own", may not be there tomorrow.
Just to be clear, I don't want to sound alarmist or something, I know these things are very rarely used against customers. But from a legal point of view, we don't own anything.
You know what the problem for many games is? Think of Diablo. The first one was about the hero who got corrupted. And the second one was that corrupted hero is the new Diablo, so the angel and you take steps to patch up the flaws by destroying the soulstone and the worldstone. The 3rd and the 4th? Reiteration of the previous. And now you are practically a God, because you defeated all the previous ones that failed. FINISH THE STUPID STORY!!
You know what the problem for many games is? Think of Diablo. The first one was about the hero who got corrupted. And the second one was that corrupted hero is the new Diablo, so the angel and you take steps to patch up the flaws by destroying the soulstone and the worldstone. The 3rd and the 4th? Reiteration of the previous. And now you are practically a God, because you defeated all the previous ones that failed. FINISH THE STUPID STORY!!
I don't ever want Valve having enough tech for HL3. The next "revolutionary" thing is utterly dark utopian thing called human-brain interface.