On August 24, 1996, Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington started a company Valve to make and produce games. What they didn’t know is they would turn gaming into a billion-dollar industry and become the golden standard for games across the world.

This all started with Half-Life in 1998 a game that is still played to this day. Half-Life is a first person shooter campaign and it follows the narrative of  the role of Gorden Freemen, a scientist who must escape from the Black Mesa Research Facility after it is taking over by aliens after a terrible scientific experiment.

This was played by millions at the time and through the use of Half-Life modders created one of the most played games to this day. CS-GO, a competitive first-person shooter that people could play at lane parties.

Over time the developers noticed the fan base for the mod as competition started showing up at game cons across American so the developers higher the 2 college students who created the mod Minh Le and Jess Cliffe to make Counter strike: Condition Zero started the most profitable and most played game series valve ever published.

Other game where made with the Half-Life engine source, 2 games like Team Fortress and Cry of Fear. Valve went on to create valve Source 2 to make the new Half-life 2 which would go on to be the building blocks for games like CS-GO, CS-GO 2, Team fortress 2, Left 4 dead 2 and other games that hit the top of the charts when released being favorited but people all over the world.

Valve’s games are so loved around the world that just loading into a game of CS-GO or Team Fortress 2 you can meet people on your team from Russia to Venezuela, Making every game that much more memorable having got to talk to someone from a different place and getting along with them.