Valve considered making a 'B title' before Half-Life, until an exec told Gabe Newell 'that's just not gonna work… the company will fail'
Harrington says Valve was headhunting developers in the late 90s, and one of the ideas linked to this was to work on another ...
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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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How a nephew’s CD burner inspired early Valve to embrace DRM
But years before that, with the 1998 launch of the original Half-Life, Valve cofounder and then-CMO Monica Harrington said she was inspired to take DRM more seriously by her nephew's reaction to ...
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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 ...
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Valve Used ‘Game of the Year’ Sticker to Turn Half-Life into a Success
Monica Harrington from Valve shared some interesting facts about the company during her talk at the GDC 2025. One of the most surprising stories was about how Valve struggled to sell Half-Life due ...
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 ...
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 ...
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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 ...