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A summer intern once saved Valve from a near-fatal lawsuit

"The company was pretty close to going bankrupt, I was pretty close to going personally bankrupt⁠—we went all in, there was no money left"

First Spotted by 80 Level, Secret Tape's massive documentary on the development of Half-Life 2 contains an almost unbelievable story of how Valve was saved from legal and financial ruin thanks to the actions of a single summer intern, paving the way for PC gaming as we know it today. It's difficult to imagine looking back now, but in the circa 2002-2004 span of this story, Valve was still just a normal, if particularly successful and influential game developer, while the multinational Vivendi brought overwhelming firepower to the legal dispute. Absent Andrew's timely intervention, Half-Life 2 likely would have still made it to market, but it's uncertain whether Valve could have survived the continued war of attrition with Vivendi, becoming another one of those legendary fallen developers like Looking Glass, Origin, or Troika.

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