One of Valve's original executives shares a very simple secret to its success: 'You can't use up your credibility' by trying to make bad games work
And I'm willing to bet that Monica Harrington, one of the company's original executives and its first chief marketing officer ...
Steam's DRM was inspired by an exec's nephew and his trusty CD burner
Harrington has a somewhat contentious relationship with Valve's origin story. In 2024, she said that her name had been erased ...
How a Microsoft exec managed to pitch Microsoft Word through the genius tactic of being able to actually use it in a 'type-off' demanded by clients: 'I was the only one …
And like many of Valve's earliest employees, Harrington came there from Microsoft, where one of her major responsibilities ...
GameSpot3d
Valve's DRM Origins Include An Exec's 19-Year-Old Pirate Nephew
A fun myth to hear about relates to a friend's uncle working at Nintendo to get the scoop on secrets. But what if your ...
How a nephew’s CD burner inspired early Valve to embrace DRM
PC Gamer pulled that interesting tidbit from a talk Harrington gave at last week's Game Developers Conference. In her ...
TweakTown2d
Valve invented the 'Game of the Year Edition' marketing strategy, former exec reveals
At GDC 2025, former Valve chief Monica Harrington explored the challenges of marketing a game, and how the Game of the Year ...
Valve literally gives Half-Life away now, but 27 years ago it was carefully crushing its angry pirates: "None of them had actually bought the game"
Takes you closer to the games, movies and TV you love Issues delivered straight to your door or device Half-Life is $2 on ...
GameSpot6d
The Dramatic Half-Life Deal That Altered The Fate Of Valve Forever
The terms of the deal, Harrington said, was that Valve would fund all but $1 million of the development costs of Half-Life's ...
Former Valve exec recounts the meeting where Half-Life's publisher almost killed the iconic FPS: "Half-Life would quietly die. I was stunned"
Ex-Valve CMO Monica Harrington, in a recent panel from the Game Developer's Conference, once again remembered an era where ...
Video Gamer7d
OG Half-Life publisher Sierra planned to “abandon” the game before Valve threatened them
The original Half-Life was almost abandoned by publisher Sierra On-Line before Valve threatened to reveal their unsavoury ...
GIGAZINE1d
Steam's Digital Rights Management (DRM) was introduced after the nephew of a Valve executive copied a game without permission.
The bottom line is that the authentication system worked really well.' After Monica Harrington's speech, Mike Harrington commented, 'When I heard my nephew's story, I thought at first ...
WOOD-TV20d
Police look for man who assaulted 2 Battle Creek students
The police department said surrounding districts have also been notified. Monica Harrington is a parent of a sophomore at Battle Creek Central High School. She said she found out about the ...