From Team Fortress Wiki

Valve Corporation Information Sphere of activity: Game development

Software distribution Locale: Bellevue, Washington

For the item quality, see Valve (quality)

Valve Corporation or Valve is a game development studio and software distribution company, known for developing such franchises as Half-Life, Team Fortress, Left 4 Dead, and Portal. It was founded by Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington in 1996. The company is based in Bellevue, Washington.

Within the background of the Team Fortress 2 Storyline, Valve Corporation is represented as a division of TF Industries. In this capacity, Valve Corporation provides publishing and copyright control and defines Terms of Use.