Case Study- Portal, Portal 2

Portal is a Valve produced puzzle-platformer game which reached critical acclaim having sold millions of copies.

The game’s story mode centers around the main character Chell, who is forced to undergo a series of tests within the Aperture Science Enrichment Center by a psychotic artificial computer known as Glados. The tests involve the usage of a ‘Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device’, or portal gun, which creates a wormhole-like connection between any two flat surfaces.

This game spread Valve’s specialty in games, which they focused primarily in first person shooter games but with Portal achieved critical acclaim with a puzzle based game

Not only is this game considered highly entertaining, but also extremely educational, requiring the usage of physics, math, logic, spatial-reasoning, probability, and problem solving, interesting, cool, and in the method of a video game

The game was originally released as a three-game compilation, The Orange Box, and though intended as a short bonus feature of the compilation, was instead considered the highlight of the compilation.

Convergence/ Diversification

Valve’s products extend to provide benefits to a variety of media producers, since the engines they used to produce their games are very user friendly.

Using the Source game engine, Valve produced a distinguishable video capture and editing service known as SFM, which the company released a free open-beta for the public to use via their Steam service.

2012: Incorporation of Valve S.a.r.l. a subsidiary based in Luxembourg.

Set up offices in Luxembourg.
Steam is available in 237 countries in 21 languages.
The availability of games in other countries and languages has allowed Valve's audience to expand exponentially, reaching a great amount of the world.

Case Study- Dota 2 (Defense of the Ancients)

Development of Dota 2 began in 2009 when the developer of the DotA mod, IceFrog, was hired by Valve as lead designer from the game.

Dota 2 is a multiplayer online battle arena which consists of two teams playing discrete matches with 5 players on each team.

Players must work together to protect their team’s stronghold known as the “Ancient”, which the opposite team must destroy in order to win the match.

Players can select over a hundred different characters to play known as heroes.

This production is a prime example of the rising popularity of Esports, or electronic sports. Tournaments are formed pitting different s With smaller tournaments offering a few hundred to victorious teams, to extremely widespread tournaments offering grand prizes in the millions.

The biggest videogame tournament recorded in history for Dota is known as the International 2014, the fourth edition of the international Dota Tournament, offering a grand prize of over 5 million dollars to the grand champions, not including the other prizes for lesser placements for a total of almost 11 million dollars.

How it all began

Valve Corporation was founded in August of 1996 by two former Microsoft employees, Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington. The company was launched in Kirkland, Washington and later moved to Bellevue, Washington. Valve released its first game titled Half Life which gained the company immediate fame by winning multiple awards including "Game of the Year." The company stayed on the down low for a couple of years until 2004, when they released Half Life 2 and Counter-Strike: Source which were the first games to use their new technology: Source Engine. From then on, Valve has continued to gain popularity with their one of a kind games.

Gabe Newell

                     

                                                 

Scene from the game Half Life

                                                               

Major Productions

Alien Swarm

Aperture Tag

Half-Life: Blue Shift

Counter-Strike

Counter-Strike (series)

Counter-Strike Neo

Counter-Strike Online

Counter-Strike: Condition Zero

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Counter-Strike: Source

The Crossing

Day of Defeat

Day of Defeat: Source

Deathmatch Classic

Dota 2

Gunman Chronicles

Half-Life (series)

Half-Life (video game)

Half-Life 2

Half-Life 2: Deathmatch

Half-Life 2: Episode One

Half-Life 2: Episode Two

Half-Life 2: Lost Coast

Half-Life 2: Survivor

Half-Life: Decay

Half-Life: Opposing Force

Half-Life: Source

Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead 2

The Orange Box

Portal (video game)

Portal 2

Ricochet (2000 video game)

Team Fortress 2

Team Fortress Classic

Technology Evolution and Impact

All of Valve's games use one of two engines of their own creation – the Quake-based GoldSrc or its successor, Source.

The Source Engine is a 3D video game engine developed by the Valve Corporation originally for their debut first-person shooter, Counter-Strike: Source.
Steam introduced a revolutionary service known as Greenlight, which allows indie game developers to post their games on the Steam website, and allow fellow gamers to play and rate their games for free or a small cost. 
Greenlight assists developers in testing their games, in addition to providing them a method to spread awareness and sales of their games.
Highly popular games featured on Greenlight are offered contracts with Valve to sell their games and have been given the opportunity to sometimes partner in production.

Mecha Ace - example of a game sold by the steam store.

Marketing and Distribution

Valve developed and maintains a software distribution platform named Steam which provides users with installation and automatic updating of games on any computer they own. It also provides community features such as friend lists and groups, in game chat functions and voice functionality, as well as cloud saving. As of September 2014 over 3700 games are available through Steam.

In October 2013, it was estimated by Screen Digest that 75 percent of games bought online for the PC are downloaded through Steam.

Valve focuses primarily on digital marketing, consisting of online advertisements on various websites in addition to their steam software to promote their games.Billboards/Poster board advertisements are still present to promote new game launches, especially in large cities.

Works Cited

1. Main Page. (2014, August 12). Retrieved December 8, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
2. Valve. (n.d.). Retrieved December 8, 2014, from http://www.valvesoftware.com
3. Valve Corporation. (n.d.). Retrieved December 8, 2014, from http://www.giantbomb.com/valve-corporation/3010-1374/
4. Welcome to Steam. (n.d.). Retrieved December 8, 2014, from http://store.steampowered.com/