I guess this was making the rounds yesterday as people were getting more and more pissed off at the delay, I had no idea about most of it, I just played half life and heard about the HL2 theft. I thought it was interesting.
1998November * Half-Life is released.
1999March * The nascent Half-Life mod "Counter-Strike" moves to Planet Half-Life and fails to die in obscurity.
April * In a show of largesse, Valve releases Team Fortress Classic for free, beginning a long proud tradition of co-opting other people's mods and making them their own.
June * Counter-Strike beta 1 is released. One reviewer calls the mod "not terribly unlike Team Fortress 2." Game developers working on multiplayer titles hear faint death rattles.
July * Valve releases Half-Life: Game of the Year Edition, which is a repackaged Half-Life with Team Fortress Classic included.
October * PC Gamer declares Half-Life the "best game ever". Well, presumably the best PC game ever, which kind of narrows it down a bit.
* The Mac port of Half-Life is officially cancelled, angering four.
November * Valve releases Opposing Force, the first Half-Life expansion pack. The number of possible permutations for retail packages begins to grow...
December * Counter-Strike becomes so popular that Valve decides they want a piece of the pie. They begin funding its development, hiring Barking Dog to help create the mod's next beta version.
* Incite Magazine publishes a short Q&A with Motley Crue's Nikki Six in which he claims that his band "1958" has been hired to do music for Half-Life 2. Valve responds by saying they are as surprised as everyone else by this development.
* Valve releases the Half-Life Adrenaline Pack, which is a repackaged Game of the Year Edition with Opposing Force included.
2000January * Valve announces the formation of the Powerplay initiative, a joint project with Cisco that will revolutionize the way games are played on the internet. According to official literature, a dialup connection on Powerplay will have no qualitative difference from broadband. One quote states that under Powerplay, games will still be playable with a ping of 1000.
February * Half-Life for the Dreamcast is officially announced.
March * Half-Life: Hostile Takeover is mentioned as an official expansion pack. It is never developed.
* Valve announces that they will forego showing Team Fortress 2 at the upcoming E3 because they are busy working on the Dreamcast port of Half-Life.
* The retail package Half-Life: Initial Encounter is released. It includes the freely available demo "Half-Life: Uplink" along with a crippled version of Team Fortress Classic. Valve didn't actually want to release something so blatantly exploitative, but the teeming masses were clamoring for it, so hey.
* The "Half-Life: Generation" Sierra shovelware package is released.
April * The Counter-Strike team announces that the mod has been subsumed by Valve, and that it will be included in the next Half-Life update.
* Gabe Newell mentions in an interview that Counter-Strike will not be included in the next Half-Life update.
June * The new Half-Life update is released. It includes Counter-Strike.
* A retail version of Team Fortress Classic is released in stores.
July * Rewolf Software announces that their Half-Life total conversion project, Gunman Chronicles, will be published by Valve as a commercial product. It is unknown as to what percentage of the profits Valve agrees to take for their part in publishing a game they didn't make.
August * Valve announces Half-Life: Platinum, which is a repackaged Adrenaline Pack with Counter-Strike included.
September * Rewolf announces that Gunman Chronicles will be a standalone game and not a Half-Life expansion, leaving some to wonder what role exactly Valve is playing in the project.
November * Valve unveils their Ricochet mod, which will combine the nuanced gameplay of bouncing discs off walls with the garish colors of a Tron ripoff.
* Not content with just one unfinished console port, Valve announces that work has begun on a Playstation 2 port of Half-Life.
* Gunman Chronicles is released, and is the biggest total-conversion gone commercial success story since HACX.
* Counter-Strike is released in stores, capitalizing on gamers who don't realize that instead of purchasing a $30 mod, they could rummage through the clearance rack and buy a $20 game with which they could download the exact same mod.
2001January * NYU professor Ken Perlin mentions that he has been working with Valve to develop realistic character animation systems for Half-Life 2. Perlin's previous work in the field included developing software that helps people with learning disorders. Coincidence?
March * A new Half-Life patch removes a "fakelag" command which allowed players to purposely increase the amount of lag they experienced. Players had discovered that due to Half-Life's bizarre netcode, the ability to have even more lag than normal could be used as a tactical advantage.
* Blue Shift, the new episode originally developed for the still-unreleased Dreamcast port of Half-Life, is announced as an upcoming expansion pack for the PC. News regarding the Dreamcast port itself is eerily absent.
* A second edition of the "Half-Life: Generation" Sierra shovelware package is released.
May * Counter-Strike: Condition Zero is announced as an all-new single-player game in the Counter-Strike universe. It is revealed that the project had originally been fielded to Rogue Software before brought back in-house to Valve. Developer count: 2
* Blue Shift for the PC and Half-Life for the PS2 are shown at E3. The Dreamcast port of Half-Life is nowhere to be found.
* An irate Rogue Software employee publically accuses Valve of lying about Rogue's part in the development of Condition Zero to make themselves look better.
June * Half-Life for the Dreamcast is cancelled entirely. No reason is given.
* In a bizarre bout of celerity, Valve releases their Deathmatch Classic mod within a few short weeks of its announcement. That the mod is merely a new facade pasted onto Quake 1 deathmatch does not take away from the laudably short turnaround time from announcement to release.
* Cheating in Half-Life games, primarily Counter-Strike, grows after a major website makes some of the more advanced hacks available for public download. Several Counter-Strike leagues suspend tournament play.
* The long-quiet Powerplay initiative reemerges as it is purchased by New Millennium Entertainment. The company announces it is integrating the technology into a new standalone ISP called "Game2K1", which an official webpage describes as being powered by "liquid bandwidth".
* Half-Life: Blue Shift is released. Valve runs out of possible occasions where a player could stumble across Gordon Freeman.
August * Counter-Strike: Condition Zero is farmed out to Gearbox Software. Developer count: 3
September * PC Gamer declares the nearly three year old Half-Life the "best game ever". Again.
October * Anti-cheating software Punkbuster stops supporting Half-Life after its creators ask Valve to better integrate the technology into the Half-Life engine and are turned down. Valve announces that they are developing their own anti-cheating measures, which will be forthcoming. In the meantime, door's open, boys!
November * Gearbox Software's Randy Pitchford states that Counter-Strike: Condition Zero will be released sometime in 2002.
* Valve's Doug Lombardi mentions that Team Fortress 2 is still in full development and info will be coming soon.
* Half-Life for the PS2 ships. It includes a new co-op mission entitled "Decay" which, incredibly, is not hacked out and turned into yet another PC expansion pack.
December * Valve and Speakeasy launch Half-Life TV, which is new software designed to support 80,000 simultaneous viewers of Half-Life CPL events. One month later, a website estimates that 0.01% of Half-Life servers are using the free technology.
2002January * The official website for Counter-Strike: Condition Zero is launched.
* Valve's new content delivery system, Steam, is mentioned for the first time.
February * A CPL press release announces that Counter-Strike: Condition Zero will be the featured game at their July tournament, leading most to assume it would be released by then. A Sierra press release then confirms that the game is due for a Q2 2002 release.
March * A website entitled Counter-Strike Report is posted, in which a concerned citizen meticulously and anally documents all of the many, many bugs in the Half-Life multiplayer engine.
* A third edition of the "Half-Life: Generation" shovelware package is released.
April * The CPL Summer Championships drop Counter-Strike: Condition Zero from the schedule, probably due to it not being completed.
* Valve releases Half-Life version 1.1.0.9, the major addition to which is all-new anti-cheat technology. Jubilation is short-lived as many players find that the patch completely breaks the game. It is also discovered that in addition to the patch's anti-cheat technology, a wallhack console command has been added, making all of the anti-cheat technology effectively useless.
May * An XBox port of Counter-Strike is announced at E3, with a release date of 2003.
June * Valve releases an "unplanned" patch to fix the myriad bugs introduced in 1.1.0.9. The new patch also includes the Ricochet mod, a scant 19 months after its initial announcement.
* Hackers discover that Valve's anti-cheat technology automatically turns itself off after the server's second or third map change, and the only way to reactivate it is to restart the server.
* A program is released to play WAV files directly over Half-Life's new voice chat, ruining it forever.
July * Counter-Strike: Condition Zero is pushed back to a winter 2002 release.
* Gearbox Software announces that they are developing the PC port of Halo. Some wonder, "aren't they supposed to be working on Counter-Strike: Condition Zero?"
August * Valve fixes a bug in which minimizing Half-Life caused audio output to be lost permanently. The bug had been present since November 1998.
* With their anti-cheat measures proving only partially effective, Valve begins banning the CD keys of those who are caught.
* Valve releases Half-Life: Platinum Collection #2, which is a repackaged Platinum Collection #1 with Blue Shift included.
December * Valve announces that development on Counter-Strike: Condition Zero has moved to Ritual Entertainment, and that the game's release date has been pushed back to spring 2003. Developer count: 4
* Valve announces that Counter-Strike 1.6b will be released in January 2003.
2003January * Valve reiterates that Counter-Strike 1.6b will be released as promised.
* Valve releases Counter-Strike 1.6b via their still-beta Steam content delivery system. The Steam network crashes and burns under the massive load, and the release is postponed indefinitely.
* A Counter-Strike: Condition Zero preview mentions a March 2003 release date.
March * Valve says that a Q2 2003 release for Counter-Strike: Condition Zero is "set in stone."
April * Half-Life 2 is officially announced, with a release date of September, 30, 2003.
* Valve officially announces that Half-Life mod Day of Defeat will be released as a standalone retail game. Out of the five standalone PC titles released by Valve to this point, three are community mods.
May * Troika announces Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, which will license the Half-Life 2 Source engine. Troika ends up finishing the game before Half-Life 2 is done, and must sit on it for several months.
* A Counter-Strike: Condition Zero preview mentions a release date of June 2, 2003.
* Valve's Half-Life 2 demo at E3 wows audiences. Valve asserts that everything in the demo is indicative of real gameplay and nothing has been scripted.
* The Counter-Strike: Condition Zero official website is redesigned, and gives a release date of summer 2003.
* Valve confirms that Half-Life 2 will be ported to the XBox.
June * Microsoft says that as far as they are aware, Half-Life 2 will not be on the XBox. Valve quickly reiterates that Half-Life 2 will, in fact, be on the XBox.
* Counter-Strike 1.6b is finally released, five months after the initial release date.
* Valve sends out a press release advertising that the new Counter-Strike knife is a "Badlands Bowie" creation by knife designer Mick Strider, founder of Strider Knives, which can be found at
http://www.striderknives.com/ * Valve states that neither Half-Life 2 nor Counter-Strike: Condition Zero have been delayed.
July * The Steam 2.0 beta client shows up on various file sites. It allows one to download and play Half-Life without actually buying anything.
* Gabe Newell reiterates that Counter-Strike: Condition Zero is not slipping and will hit its release date.
* Ritual Entertainment launches their own Counter-Strike: Condition Zero website, which among other things reveals the existence of Japanese school-girl hostages.
* Several websites report that HL2 has slipped to holidays 2003. Gabe Newell responds by reaffirming that HL2 will be out on September 30, 2003.
August * Valve once again reiterates that Half-Life 2 will be released September 30, 2003.
September * Gabe Newell reveals Valve's plans to sell Half-Life 2 on a $10/month ongoing subscription plan, which will include all future released content. He claims this will be a better overall deal.
* 21 months after its initial announcement, the first non-beta Steam client is released.
* Valve yet again reiterates that Half-Life 2 will be released September 30, 2003.
* Valve announces that Half-Life 2 has been pushed back to a "holiday" release.
* At the September 30, 2003 "release party" on Alcatraz Island, the game is not even demoed for the gathered crowd. ATI, who paid for the party, is not amused.
October * Rumors circulate that Half-Life 2 has been stolen and leaked onto the internet. It is later revealed that the intruder did not break into the Valve network directly, but rather through the network of Tangis, a wearable computing firm located next door to Valve. Though now largely defunct, Tangis was headed by Dan Newell, Gabe's brother.
* Gabe Newell says that only a small portion of HL2's source code was stolen.
* The entire Half-Life 2 source code, as well as all game data, is leaked to the internet.
* Examination of the stolen game data makes it clear that Valve's E3 presentation was heavily scripted, contrary to their claims.
* Turtle Rock takes over production on Counter-Strike: Condition Zero. Developer count: 5
* Counter-Strike: Condition Zero goes gold, and Gabe Newell announces it will be available November 18, 2003.
November * Counter-Strike: Condition Zero misses its release date.
* Valve announces that Counter-Strike: Condition Zero has not been delayed.
* Counter-Strike Xbox hits stores. Console gamers yawn and continue playing Halo, the PC port of which was created by Gearbox, who worked on Counter-Strike: Condition Zero before it was handed off to Ritual, who made Counter-Strike Xbox! It's all connected!
December * EBGames pushes the Counter-Strike: Condition Zero scheduled release date back to April 2004. Valve does not comment.
* Valve holds a "launch party" for Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, despite the fact that the game has not been released, and does not have an official release date.
2004January * "Half-Life 2" is spotted on sale in Ukraine. The game is a patched-up version of the data stolen from Valve the previous September.
* Half-Life 2 wins Wired's coveted "Vaporware Award". 3D Realms is reportedly furious.
February * Reviewers receive "official" copies of Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, but the game still has no announced release date.
* Valve announces they are shooting for a summer 2004 release of Half-Life 2.
March * Users of Steam are confused to learn that the program has automatically downloaded an encrypted version of Counter-Strike: Condition Zero to their hard drive without their consent, even if they had no intention of actually buying the game.
* Counter-Strike: Condition Zero is finally released, 34 months and 5 developers after its initial announcement. The last game under the Valve aegis before Half-Life 2, it receives an average review score of 67%.
April * Valve mentions Team Fortress 2 for the first time in years, saying it will be given primary focus at Valve after Half-Life 2 is released. That a World War II-era class-based team deathmatch game is not as original as it was five years ago seems not to concern them.
* Longtime Planet Half-Life site director Fragmaster posts a long and dee-licious rant detailing the reasons for his departure from the site. It is later obliquely referred to by the always grandiloquent Geoff Keighley as being a "bitter missive" against Valve.
June * Gabe Newell says that Half-Life 2 will be done in August.
August * Half-Life 2's entire storyline is revealed when it is discovered that the Counter-Strike: Source beta contains all the Half-Life 2 dialogue in one of the files.
* A post by Gabe Newell on a fansite forum states that Half-Life 2 has gone gold, but it is later revealed to be a fake. The impostor admits that he co-opted Gabe's forum account, which used the password "gaben".
September * Valve states that they plan to submit a release candidate to Vivendi by September 15.
* Valve submits a release candidate to Vivendi on September 15.
* Vivendi rejects it.
* A Gamespot article reveals that Valve is suing Vivendi over cyber-cafe distribution rights, and Vivendi delayed Counter-Strike: Condition Zero in retaliation. Also, despite concurrently delaying their own game out of spite and thus cutting into their own profits, Vivendi counter-sues Valve, claiming they are not showing due diligence in developing Half-Life 2.
* Gabe Newell reveals the Half-Life 2 purchase options. The previously announced monthly subscription plan is nowhere to be seen.
October * It is discovered that any Counter-Strike: Source server can be immediately crashed simply by a player changing their name to "%n".
* In a repeat of events, it is discovered that Valve has left a wallhack console command in Counter-Strike: Source, leaving many to wonder what they have learned since 2002.
* A count of all Valve-related products to date gives a final total of 18 separate retail packages. As their contribution to these 18 packages, Valve Software has created exactly one single-player game and three multiplayer addons of varying quality.
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