Valve Corporation

Valve Corporation is an entertainment and technology company based in Bellevue, Washington. They are the company behind Dota 2 as well as many other popular titles.

Valve was founded in 1996 by former Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington. Their debut product, the PC first-person shooter Half-Life, was released in 1998 to critical acclaim and commercial success, after which Harrington left the company. In 2003, Valve launched Steam, which accounted for around half of digital PC game sales by 2011. By 2012, Valve employed around 250 people and was reportedly worth over US$3 billion, making it the most profitable company per employee in the United States. In 2015, Valve entered the game hardware market with the Steam Machine, a line of third-party built gaming PCs running Valve's SteamOS operating system.