Valve, Steam & the Entire PC Gaming Industry Were Saved by a “Single” Intern

In case you missed the news, Half-Life 2 has recently celebrated its 20th birthday. And to commemorate the occasion, Valve released a new documentary dedicated to one of, if not the most influential first-person shooter of all time. Sharing a ton of insights regarding its history, development, and the state of the company during the early 2000s.

Amidst the numerous interesting facts about Valve shared in the documentary, one particular tidbit captured the attention of fans.  As it suggested that Steam, Portal, Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2, Dota 2, and, frankly speaking, the entire PC gaming industry as we know it today, wouldn’t have been possible if it wasn’t for a single Korean-speaking intern, a summer associate, and an unsung hero named Andrew.

Valve versus Sierra Entertainment

Proving that real life is filled with moments that would make pretentious film critics roll their eyes and exclaim, “How convenient”. The story goes like this: In 2002, Valve filed a lawsuit against its then-publisher Sierra Entertainment. That was owned by a French mass-media holding company Vivendi, over the latter’s licensing of Counter-Strike to cyber cafes. It was something Valve wasn’t deeply bothered about but just wanted Sierra to acknowledge that it fell outside the scope of their licensing agreement.

While the lawsuit was launched, according to Valve, only to clarify the situation and better understand whether or not Sierra can distribute their games to cyber cafes, the publisher went full-on lawfare mode, hiring a San Francisco law firm to “bully” Valve into bankruptcy.

In a typical David-versus-Goliath-like legal battle. Vivendi filed numerous counterclaims against Valve as a company and its executives personally.  Draining the relatively small developer – far from the multi-billion-dollar giant we know it as today – of time and money to such an extent, Gabe Newell was on the verge of selling his house. To add insult to injury, a large number of documents Vivendi was burying Valve in was in Korean. Drastically slowing down the process and requiring the developer to spend even more funds on hiring someone proficient in the language and capable of sifting through lines of text beyond counting.

Our unsung Korean hero enters the stage

But the fabric of reality is woven with threads of luck. And during this uneasy time, Valve’s legal department happened to have an intern named Andrew. Who was undergoing a summer practice. The twist is that Andrew was a native Korean speaker and a Korean language studies major at UCLA. So understanding the language in question wasn’t much of an issue for him.

After combing through thousands of documents, the intern found “a needle in the haystack”. It was a single paper that proved Vivendi was destroying evidence related to the case. This one revelation was enough to turn the case in Valve’s favor. Ultimately winning them the lawsuit, securing Valve the rights to the Half-Life and Counter-Strike franchises. And, reimbursing their legal costs, and yes, terminating Vivendi’s agreement with cyber cafes. In the end, Valve took over distributing its games itself. Which ultimately led to Steam evolving from a small software client into the largest digital distribution platform and storefront. A development many believe to be the core reason the modern PC gaming industry even exists.

Who is our hero?

Unfortunately, the identity of the gaming industry’s unsung hero remains unknown. But, given that we know his first name, where he studied, and, of course, the fact that Korean is his mother tongue. It’s likely that internet detectives will soon uncover what Andrew has been up to over the past two decades and how he personally views his contribution.

In the documentary, Valve also revealed footage, gameplay mechanics, and concepts of the unreleased Half-Life 2: Episode 3 for the first time.

Watch the full documentary here.