Half-Life is $2 on Steam at the time of writing. That's $2 in 2025 money - a far cry from the 1998 money we had when the game came out. It's difficult to even buy Half-Life at full price nowadays, and Valve has given it the full 100% discount during several events. Valve certainly seems to not be worried about Half-Life sales anymore. But when the game was new and the company was unsteady, and putting all its eggs in a basket with a handsome beard and suit, it was very worried about Half-Life sales, hence its insistence on piracy-fighting authentication.
Founding Valve CMO Monica Harrington shared a detailed account of her history with the company at a Game Developer's Conference 2025 lecture attended by GamesRadar+, building on her Medium post from last year (which remains essential reading). The whole story - which stresses not just Harrington's role in developing the company's foundation and securing a visible space for Half-Life, but also the contributions of a lot of "smart men and smart women" who can go unsung - is worth a look, but one amusing and now-expanded anecdote about piracy stood out to me. It's a tale as old as time.
