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Valve

OVERALL

Owned
USA
Rating
Criticism, some praise

Video games

Founded in 1996 by former Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington. Their debut product was the very successful video game Half-Life. Valve owns Steam, the world's largest PC video game distribution platform. Billionaire co-founder Gabe Newell owns 50% of the company.

Valve Corporation   USA     website      facebook   twitter

> About the Ratings

Company Assessment

PRAISE CRITICISM INFORMATION
Valve Corporation
Social Breaching consumer laws in Australia
On 23 December 2016 the Australian Federal Court ordered Valve Corporation (Valve) to pay penalties totalling $3 million for breaching the Australian Consumer Law. In March 2016, the Court found that Valve had breached the Australian Consumer Law by making false or misleading representations to consumers in relation to its online gaming platform, Steam. The judge also took into account "Valve's culture of compliance [which] was, and is, very poor". Valve's evidence was 'disturbing' to the Court because Valve 'formed a view...that it was not subject to Australian law...and with the view that even if advice had been obtained that Valve was required to comply with the Australian law the advice might have been ignored". He also noted that Valve had 'contested liability on almost every imaginable point'.
Source: ACCC (2017)
Social Breaching consumer laws in France
This company was fined 147,000 euros by French authorities in 2018 for failing to implement satisfactory refund policies on its Steam digital storefront.
Source: news article (2018)
Business Ethics Geo-blocking in Europe
Valve and five video game makers have been the target of a European Commission investigation since 2017. The six companies have been charged with using geo-blocking to prevent EU consumers from shopping around for the best video game deals within the 28-country bloc. This company plans to fight the charges.
Source: news article (2019)
Social Anti-crunch claims
In 2020 Valve executives claimed that excessive overtime (crunch) rarely occured at their development studios. The company tries to attempt a good work-life balance to ensure it doesn't "slowly erode your home life by working you to death". Mind you, Valve doesn't make very many games.
Source: Gaming Bolt (2020)

> About the Icons

Company Details

Type Private company
Revenue 4.3 billion USD (2017)
Employees 360 (2016)

Contact Details

Address Bellevue, Washington, USA
Website valvesoftware.com

Products / Brands

Valve
Counter-Strike Action Games
Counter-Strike Multiplayer Games
DOTA Strategy Games
Half-Life Action-Adventure Games
Left 4 Dead Action-Adventure Games
Portal Other Video Games
Team Fortress Action Games
Team Fortress Multiplayer Games
Valve Index VR Headsets


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