I've wondered a few times how valve managed to keep the show on the road - their major releases are routinely far later than expected, yet consistently good and

I've wondered a few times how valve managed to keep the show on the road - their major releases are routinely far later than expected, yet consistently good and successful. Valve was started by a couple of ex-Softies with two-digit employee numbers. They could have bought the Vatican and turned Catholicism into a LARP if they'd wanted to. The original Half-Life reached the 90%-complete point before they took some time out and played their own game. They concluded that it sucked, and started over from scratch. They had the pressure of building a reputation, and the advantage of not having to live up to an existing one.