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Cutting corners: In the early days of Half-Life’s development, Valve was a very different company. Monica Harrington happened to be part of that team, yet the “official” history of the studio has seemingly left her out.
While working at Microsoft as a group marketing manager in the Consumer division, Monica Harrington helped Gabe Newell and her husband, Mike, create a small video game studio near Seattle, Washington. Newell and her now ex-husband are officially recognized as the co-founders of Valve Corporation, but Harrington believes she should be properly acknowledged for her instrumental role in the studio’s foundation as well.
Harrington shared her story in lengthy post on Medium, which was recently picked up by Rock Paper Shotgun. After taking a two-month leave from her main job at Microsoft, she assisted her husband and Newell with the marketing and business development efforts at Valve. Newell and Mike Harrington, both former Microsoft employees, founded the studio in 1996 to develop Half-Life, one of the most influential titles in the first-person shooter genre.
Half-Life was released in 1998 to both commercial and critical success, and Valve began work on Half-Life 2 shortly after. In her post, Harrington claims that Steam was her idea, though the original project envisioned a partnership between Valve and Amazon.
In a nine-page document, she proposed a new “online entertainment platform” that would sell both digital and physical content. The venture was projected to generate $500 million within the first four years, with Amazon’s financial backing providing solid assurance against competition from Microsoft and Electronic Arts in the PC gaming market.
In Harrington’s original vision, Valve wouldn’t create any new games but would instead manage this new content platform. Third-party developers could release their games and content on the platform without needing to pay hefty publishing fees. “At the time, I considered it an act of rebellion against the traditional publishing dynamic where independent developers took on huge risks, and the big publishing houses reaped the rewards,” Harrington said.
Amazon, enticed by the idea, was reportedly ready to buy a minority stake in Valve just weeks after the proposed partnership. However, things went in a completely different direction, and Steam is now one of the dominant forces in the PC gaming market. Valve, although still making games, does so at a notably slow pace.
One of the most intriguing aspects of Harrington’s story revolves around her apparent disappearance from the list of Valve’s founders. She is proud of her work at the company, but her significant contributions have gone largely unnoticed and unrecognized. The software and tech industries were, and in many ways still are, influenced by a “bro culture” where women seem to disappear from the spotlight whenever a founding story is told.
“I know that Valve wouldn’t have been successful without Mike. It wouldn’t have been successful without Gabe. And it wouldn’t have been successful without me,” Harrington stated. She invested her time, money, and industry expertise to help build one of the most successful gaming ventures ever, yet Valve appears to have removed her name from the company’s history.
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