Valve Corporation in the context of "Valve Index"

Steam is a digital distribution service and storefront developed by Valve. It was launched as a software client in September 2003 to provide video game updates automatically for Valve's games and expanded to distributing third-party titles in late 2005. Steam offers various features, such as game server matchmaking with Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC) measures, social networking, and game streaming services. The Steam client functions include update maintenance, cloud storage, and community features such as direct messaging, an in-game overlay, discussion forums, and a virtual collectable marketplace. The storefront also offers productivity software, game soundtracks, videos, and sells hardware made by Valve, such as the Valve Index and the Steam Deck.

Steamworks, an application programming interface (API) released in 2008, is used by developers to integrate Steam's functions, including digital rights management (DRM), into their products. Several game publishers began distributing their products on Steam that year. Initially developed for Windows, Steam was ported to macOS and Linux in 2010 and 2013 respectively, while a mobile version of Steam for interacting with the service's online features was released on iOS and Android in 2012.

The Epic Games Store is a video game digital distribution service and storefront operated by Epic Games. It launched in December 2018 as a software client, for Microsoft Windows and macOS, and online storefront. Android and iOS versions of the store launched in August 2024, with the iOS version only available for European users. The service provides friends list management, game matchmaking, and other features. Epic Games has further plans to expand the feature set of the storefront but it does not plan to add as many features as other digital distribution platforms, such as discussion boards or user reviews, instead using existing social media platforms to support these.

Epic began offering digital distribution for game publishers after the success of Fortnite, released in 2017, which Epic distributed using their own software channels to players on Windows and macOS systems. Tim Sweeney, founder and CEO of Epic Games, stated in August 2017 that the revenue cut of Steam, the dominant game storefront from Valve, was unreasonably high at 30%, and suggested that they could run a profitable store with as little as an 8% cut. By launch, Epic Games had settled on a 12% revenue cut for titles published through the store, as well as dropping the licensing fees for games built on their Unreal Engine, normally 5% of the revenue.

A virtual reality game or VR game is a video game played on virtual reality (VR) hardware. Most VR games are based on player immersion, typically through a head-mounted display unit or headset with stereoscopic displays and one or more controllers.

The video game industry made early attempts at VR in the 1990s, most notably with Sega's VR-1 and Virtuality for arcades, along with unsuccessful attempts for home consoles with the Sega VR prototype and Nintendo's Virtual Boy. With the introduction of the first consumer-ready home VR product, the Oculus Rift, in 2013, home VR games soon followed, including existing games adapted for the VR hardware, and new games designed directly for VR. While VR hardware and games grew modestly for the remainder of the 2010s, Half-Life: Alyx, a full VR game developed by Valve and released in 2020, was considered the killer application for VR games.

Gabe Logan Newell (born November 3, 1962), also known by his nickname GabeN, is an American video game developer and businessman. He is the co-founder, president and majority owner of the video game company Valve Corporation.

Newell was born in Colorado and grew up in Davis, California. He attended Harvard University in the early 1980s but dropped out to join Microsoft, where he helped create the first versions of the Windows operating system. In 1996, he and Mike Harrington left Microsoft to found Valve and fund the development of their first game, Half-Life (1998). Harrington sold his stake in Valve to Newell and left in 2000. Newell led the development of Valve's digital distribution service, Steam, which launched in 2003 and controlled most of the market for downloaded PC games by 2011.

SteamOS is a gaming-focused operating system released by Valve that incorporates the company's video game storefront, Steam. Based on Arch Linux and built specifically to support Steam, it is the default Linux distribution for Valve's line of gaming hardware, including the Steam Deck, Steam Machine, and Steam Frame. Beginning in 2025, Valve expanded official support to include third-party devices designated as "SteamOS Compatible", such as handhelds like the Lenovo Legion Go and Asus ROG Ally. It can also be installed on personal computers without official support from Valve. The core operating system is free and open-source software, while the Steam client remains proprietary.

SteamOS was first released in 2013, with versions 1.0 and 2.0 based on Debian and designed primarily as a client for streaming games over a local network from a gaming PC, with limited support for native gameplay. Valve promoted the platform as part of a broader effort to expand Linux gaming. In 2022, Valve introduced SteamOS 3.0 alongside the launch of the Steam Deck. This version transitioned to an Arch Linux base which used a rolling release model that Valve felt was better suited for hardware support. It has a dual‑mode interface: a console‑style mode powered by Steam's Big Picture UI, and a KDE Plasma desktop environment for traditional computing use. SteamOS 3.0 also incorporates Valve’s Proton compatibility layer, enabling many Windows games to run on Linux.

Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC) is an anti-cheat tool developed by Valve as a component of the Steam platform, first released with Counter-Strike in 2002.

When the software detects a cheat on a player's system, it will ban them in the future, possibly days or weeks after the original detection. It may kick players from the game if it detects errors in their system's memory or hardware. No information such as date of detection or type of cheat detected is disclosed to the player. After the player is notified, access to online "VAC protected" servers of the game the player cheated in is permanently revoked and additional restrictions are applied to the player's Steam account.

The Steam Deck is a handheld gaming computer produced by Valve Corporation, designed to run games available on its Steam storefront. Built upon the experiences gained from Valve's earlier ventures with Steam Machine and the Steam Controller, the Steam Deck integrates a custom AMD APU and SteamOS, a Linux-based operating system. The Steam Deck represents Valve's pivot towards a fully in-house hardware development approach, following the challenges faced with Steam Machines' reliance on OEMs and the requirement for native Linux game support.

Since its release in February 2022, the Steam Deck has garnered significant attention for its widespread adoption and versatility, including support for both native Linux games and those running through Proton, a compatibility layer for Windows games. Additionally, the Steam Deck features a desktop mode and allows users to install third-party Linux applications. The device has seen multiple revisions, including the introduction of OLED screen models in November 2023. Despite criticism regarding battery life, the Steam Deck has achieved notable commercial success, selling millions of units and influencing the market with its approach to portable gaming, and has spurred interest in similar handheld gaming computers.

A microtransaction (MTX) video game business model is one where users can purchase in-game virtual goods with micropayments. Microtransactions are often used in free-to-play games to provide a revenue source for the developers. While microtransactions are a staple of the mobile app market, they are also seen on PC software such as Valve's Steam digital distribution platform, as well as console gaming.

Free-to-play games that include a microtransaction model are sometimes referred to as "freemium". Another term, "pay-to-win", is sometimes used pejoratively to refer to games where purchasing items in-game can give a player an advantage over other players, particularly if the items cannot be obtained through free means. The objective with a free-to-play microtransaction model is to involve more players in the game by providing desirable items or features that players can purchase if they lack the skill or available time to earn these through regular game play. Also, presumably the game developer's marketing strategy is that in the long term, the revenue from a micro transaction system will outweigh the revenue from a one-time-purchase game.

Dota 2 is a 2013 multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game by Valve. The game is a sequel to Defense of the Ancients (DotA), a community-created mod for Blizzard Entertainment's Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. Dota 2 is played in matches between two teams of five players, with each team occupying and defending their own separate base on the map. Each of the ten players independently controls a character known as a hero that has unique abilities and differing styles of play. During a match, players collect experience points (XP) and items for their heroes to defeat the opposing team's heroes in player versus player (PvP) combat. A team wins by being the first to destroy the other team's Ancient, a large durable structure located in the center of each base.

Development of Dota 2 began in 2009 when IceFrog, lead designer of Defense of the Ancients, was hired by Valve to design a standalone remake in the Source game engine. It was released for Windows, OS X, and Linux via the digital distribution platform Steam in July 2013, following a Windows-only open beta phase that began two years prior. Dota 2 is fully free-to-play with no heroes or any other gameplay element needing to be bought or otherwise unlocked. Valve supports the game as a service, selling loot boxes and a battle pass subscription system called Dota Plus that offer non-gameplay altering virtual goods in return, such as hero cosmetics and audio replacement packs. The game was ported to the Source 2 engine in 2015, making it the first game to use it.