Valve almost went bankrupt before the launch of Steam and Half-Life 2, but was saved by a stroke of luck

A little-known story emerged in the documentary about the making of Half-Life 2: Valve was on the verge of bankruptcy due to legal battles with Vivendi. The situation was saved by an intern, on whom the future of not only Valve, but also the entire video game industry depended.

The problems began after Vivendi acquired Half-Life publisher Sierra. Vivendi violated the agreement by distributing Counter-Strike in South Korean cyber cafes. Valve only demanded recognition of the violation and compensation for costs, but Vivendi filed many counterclaims, including an attempt to ban Steam and appropriate the rights to Half-Life.

The situation became tense, and Valve found itself on the verge of financial collapse. Money was tight and Gabe Newell was ready to sell his house to continue fighting. However, intern Andrew, who speaks Korean, turned the tide. Vivendi provided millions of pages of documents in Korean, hoping to make them difficult to analyze. Andrew found key evidence: a letter from a Korean Vivendi executive ordering the destruction of incriminating documents.

This evidence allowed Valve to win in court and retain its intellectual property. Today we celebrate the 20th anniversary of Half-Life 2 thanks to a coincidence and the efforts of one person.