Counter-Strike
UPS
Half-Life
Valve was "pretty close to going bankrupt" until it was saved from a pre-Half-Life 2 lawsuit by a summer intern who happened to major in Korean language studies
Valve as a company and Gabe Newell himself were on the verge of bankruptcy in the days before the launch of Steam and Half-Life 2, thanks to a lawsuit from publisher Vivendi Games. Disaster was narrowly averted thanks to the fact that Valve just happened to have access to a summer intern who could translate Korean.