Valve Software vient d'annoncer avoir acquis Turtle Rock Studios, le studio qui a déjà développé Counter-Strike : Condition Zero et surtout qui prépare en ce moment même Left 4 Dead. Cette acquisition permet à Valve de faire une pierre deux coups en s'initiant sur le marché console et en s'implantant en Californie.

Le communiqué complet de l'annonce se trouve dans la suite de la nouvelle.

VALVE ACQUIRES TURTLE ROCK STUDIOS

Leading Content and Technology Company Adds California Studio

January 10, 2008 - Fresh off the success of The Orange Box, the 2007
game of the year award-winning collection of new games heralded as
"the best value in gaming history," Valve Corporation announces the
acquisition of Turtle Rock Studios, the Orange County-based
development house behind one of 2008's most anticipated games, Left 4
Dead.
Valve was founded in 1996 and has grown to become one of the game
industry's leading technology and content creators, with a portfolio
of over 20 million games sold worldwide. The merger of the two
companies extends Valve's development team and provides the company
with a new studio in southern California.
Turtle Rock Studios' Left 4 Dead joins a growing list of Valve's game
properties which includes the Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Team Fortress
and Day of Defeat series of games as well as Portal, introduced as
part of The Orange Box.
"We have been seeing very strong growth with Steam and Source, our
content distribution and development platforms, up over 150% over the
last 12 months. Given our expectations for Left 4 Dead and our
long-standing relationships with members of the Turtle Rock team, this
was an easy decision. It also gives us a base from which to expand our
development activities in the Los Angeles area," said Gabe Newell,
president of Valve.
"Left 4 Dead fills a long-standing demand gamers have had for a coop
first-person action experience, and it will also help Valve's
expansion into the console market," added Doug Lombardi, Valve's VP of
marketing.
"Valve has had great success bringing in projects and teams such as
Team Fortress and Portal. As I spent time working and talking with the
creators of those products over the past several years, it became
clear that this was the right next step for myself, my colleagues at
Turtle Rock, our customers, and our products," said Michael Booth,
founder and CEO of Turtle Rock Studios. "We are excited to be a part
of such a visionary and forward-thinking company."
Founded in 2002 by Michael Booth, Turtle Rock Studios is the creator
of Left 4 Dead, named one 2008's most wanted titles by many of today's
leading game-enthusiast publications and Web sites.
For more information on Valve, its games, or the Steam platform,
please visit www.steamgames.com

About Valve
Valve is an entertainment software and technology company founded in
1996 and based in Bellevue, Washington with offices in Irvine, CA. The
company's portfolio of entertainment properties includes Half-Life(R),
Counter-Strike(R), Day of Defeat(R), Team Fortress(R), PortalTM and
Left 4 DeadTM. Valve's catalog of products accounts for over 20
million retail units sold worldwide, and over 80% of PC online action
gameplay. In addition, Valve is a developer of leading-edge
technologies, such as the SourceTM game engine and Steam(R), a
broadband platform for the delivery and management of digital content.
For more information, please visit www.valvesoftware.com.