Gabe Newell Games. Gabe Newell's birthday. Why is the head of Valve famous online? Gabe Newell is generous

On November 3, one of the most important, famous and popular people in the world celebrated his fifty-fourth birthday. gaming industry- CEO valve Gabe Newell. It is unlikely that we will find a person interested in games, to whom the name Gabe, or, in full, Gaben, does not mean anything.

It is to him and his studios that they owe the birth of games that forever changed the world: half-life, Counter strike, DOTA, Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2 . And we can’t help but think of the digital distribution service Steam, which helped players get rid of disk deposits and get used to buying games for computers. According to legend, Gabe dropped the disk and decided that it was too difficult to bend over after it. This is how Steam was born.

They say that's exactly what happened!

Gabe Newell himself contributed a lot to his online popularity with controversial statements, characteristic appearance, as well as the fact that he is not afraid to make contact with ordinary players. He actively participates in discussions on the Steam forums, organizes discussions on issues related to the development of Valve, and often answers letters from users.

A year ago, a Reddit user with the nickname that_earlyguy shared his story: Gabe Newell answered his letter personally, and in addition said that in the evenings, all Valve employees, starting with the CEO, help deal with technical support requests.

Gabe proves his identity before starting to answer questions from AMA users.

Gabe just wanted to showcase his new acquisitions for his melee weapon collection. But, most likely, he deliberately left a splash screen on the desktop Half Life 3!

It's no wonder that Gabe Newell's personality serves as an inspiration for the creators of hundreds and thousands of memes, collages, videos and demotivators. We decided to collect the brightest and most characteristic of them.

“Mom asked why Harry Potter is so fat,” complains a player from Poland.

Is it true?

In 2012 Electronic Arts offered to buy the Valve studio for a billion dollars. Gaben refused. He said he would rather destroy his company than sell it. And even earlier, when Valve was just being created, friends tried to dissuade Gabe from a risky undertaking. “You'll see, in a year or two it will become part of EA or Microsoft» , they claimed. To which Gabe replied: "I'm not going to buy either EA or Microsoft". And he kept his word!

Gabe Newell has been a frequent critic of popular consoles. But the main meaning of the collage is not even in this, but in the fact that with the advent of Steam games s for personal computers experienced an unprecedented rise.

"Gabe Newell is a god, shines from him", - the players are sure. And even the most malicious ridicule carries a spark of sympathy.

Size comparison chart: Sun, Xbox, Gabe Newell.

AT recent times sales on Steam have ceased to be fabulously generous, or maybe the players just ate. But once every discount promotion caused a uniform madness: those who were especially addicted could buy games “for everything”, and only then think about why they are. Not surprisingly, according to statistics, 35% of games bought on Steam have never been launched. "Master of sales, master of our wallets"- so called at that time Gabe.

Gabe Newell plays World of Warcraft and loves to watch cartoons My Little Pony. Therefore, many congratulate him with cute pictures.

What if Gabe hired Hideo Kojima and Todd Howard to work at Valve? It would turn out a team of superheroes, the creator of the Crazy Boris video is sure.

And if the trio Beatles was looking for a fourth member in our time, the quartet would look completely different.

But the most inexhaustible source of jokes is the relationship between Gabe Newell and the mysterious number 3. After all, Valve has never released a single game with a three in the title! And even at Microsoft, novice programmer Gabe Newell worked on versions Windows 1.0, 2.0 and 2.1! The company itself willingly jokes about this and even once scheduled its presentation at the Games Developers Conference for three in the morning on March 3 (03.03, 3:00). But the exhibition with the number 3 in the title Valve never visits!

Why does Gabe never go to E3? Because he can't say the number 3!

The photo, in which Gabe shows three fingers, became the basis for the popular "believe - do not believe" questionnaire.

On the search for evidence of work on Half Life 3 or at least on the third episode Half Life 2 you can write a big novel. Clues are being searched everywhere, and the phrase "The existence of Half-Life 3 is proven!" has long become an internet meme.

Newell has repeatedly denied the existence of the third part, but no one, of course, does not believe him. And this despite the fact that he regularly shows a rare openness! For example, his mailbox has long been no secret: [email protected] And during the demonstration of the Steam Guard at the CeBIT 2011 conference, Newell even made public his password for account on Steam: they say, see for yourself, the attackers will not pass!

“They asked me to release a third episode. I released mobile version Steam» Gabe smiles enigmatically.

They say that until Gabe finishes his sandwich, he will not start making Half-Life 3.

Every gamer can say with confidence who Gabe Newell is. This genius of computer games has achieved tremendous success in all his endeavors. In his hands is concentrated power over one of the most famous and profitable studios - Valve Corporation. Today, Gabe Newell is included in the list of the richest people in the world according to Forbes magazine. His company is worth about 3 million dollars, and half of this money belongs to the developer personally.

Biography

Born November 3, 1962. Little is known about the developer's childhood and youth. One thing is clear: as a child, Newell was distinguished by a sufficiently developed mind, thanks to which he entered after graduation. But he was not destined to get a degree, because at that time the whole world was fond of the increasingly popular computer technology, and Gabe was no exception and gave his time to this science. Risking his future, Newell quits his studies and gets a job at an unknown at that time company Microsoft. Ultimately, this decision brings him millions of dollars.

Valve Corporation

After working for Bill Gates for 13 years and inspired by the success of Michael Abrash, who had previously left the corporation and created his own Quake project, Gabe Newell decides to go to free swimming. In 1996, together with his friend Mike Harrington, who also worked at Microsoft, he created his own small game development studio called Valve. Then this small corporation was unknown to anyone, and investors were in no hurry to invest in it, fearing to burn out. So Gabe and Mike had to part with their money to finance their first developments.

Having bought the Quake engine, they heavily reworked it, and already on this basis they created their first Half-Life masterpiece, released in 1998. The game became an undeniable hit, and it is not surprising that the company set about developing the second part of the series. After its creation, the world knew who Gabe Newell was. Based on this engine, such popular modifications and games as Team Fortress Classic and Counter-Strike were born. In 2000, having received an impressive monetary compensation, Mike Harrington left Valve, and Gabe became the sole owner of this already well-known studio.

Valve Games

If we talk about who Gabe Newell is, then one cannot fail to mention the games that he created. In addition to the Half-Life series, Valve has become famous for many more high-profile projects. The most popular of them will be discussed below. Let's start with the favorite shooter of all gamers - Counter-Strike. This multiplayer game was released in 1999 as a modification to Half-Life and became famous thanks to its network mode. If you have a desire to shoot terrorists and have fun with your friends, then you can safely run this old but still popular game on the grid. Another hit that Valve has released is the zombie apocalypse game Left 4 Dead. This shooter with elements of survival horror, released in 2008, won the title of "Game of the Year". Not surprisingly, after a short period of time, a sequel was released, which acquired a corporate mode.

Game industry masterpieces

Do you love intellectual puzzles? If yes, then you should definitely wander through the labyrinths of Portal. Thanks to its original storyline, excellent music and graphics, this game has won over 70 awards and has long been a top seller in its time. The puzzle was released by the studio in 2007, and in 2011 a sequel was released that surpassed the first part of the game in its popularity.

Another brainchild of the Valve studio, which almost everyone has heard of, is Dota 2. This multiplayer game has won millions of fans around the world since its release (2013). From that moment on, Gabe's photo has become the subject of worship for every gamer. To date, there is e-sports with a huge prize fund, where people from all over the world compete in Dota 2, and that says a lot. These games have glorified their creator, but this is not all that this developer has been doing.

Steam

Another brainchild that can tell who Gabe Newell is is the world-famous service for the sale of games and software, which appeared in 2003. Through Steam, not only the Valve studio distributes its products, but also other well-known developers, such as id Software, GSC game world, Rockstar Games, THQ, Capcom, 2K Games, Atari, Ubisoft, Eidos Interactive, Bethesda Softworks, 1C, etc. According to statistics, this service sells about 10 thousand games a year.

Initially, Steam was conceived to simplify the updates of computer games, in particular Counter-Strike, because at that time any gamer could not be allowed to fight if the version of his game was outdated. But very quickly, Gabe came to the conclusion that selling software through such a service is a gold mine. At first, only Valve studio games could be purchased here, but already in 2005 the catalog of virtual products expanded significantly. Steam quickly gained popularity, already in 2007 this service acquired a new system focused on the social component of the community. Through the Steam Community, users from all over the world can communicate, create their own groups and invite their friends to play games. To date, this service is the main leader, leaving competitors far behind.

Gabe Newell can safely be called a legendary figure in the gaming industry. At least because a huge number of legends and rumors revolve around this name. But today Gamebox will focus on truthful information. We bring to your attention a list of 10 facts from the life of Gabe Newell that you may not have known. Well, if you know, then honor and praise your erudition.

Gabe Newell is one of the 100 richest people in the US

Gabe Newell quit Harvard to work at Microsoft

Yes, yes, in case you didn’t know, the gaming demigod of our time studied at Harvard, but did not graduate from it. Some will exclaim indignantly: "Oh, to quit such a prestigious institution, how irresponsible!" However, given the success of Newell in the future, it is difficult to say that he made a fatal mistake. Leaving Harvard, Newell went to work at Microsoft, and Steve Ballmer himself, who at that time headed the sales department at the company, pushed him to this step. Newell later admitted that he learned more in his three months at Microsoft than in his entire time at Harvard. In a software company, the future head of Valve managed to work on several versions of Windows, and achieved a good position there. It is also noteworthy that the creator of Windows, Bill Gates, also did not finish his studies at Harvard at the time. Coincidence?

Gabe Newell Saved Half-Life 2

In 2003, a German hacker managed to steal the Half-Life 2 code. Panic gripped the entire studio, as everyone was preparing for a high-profile release. Even then, the developers guessed that HL2 would have a huge impact on the industry, otherwise they would not have spent so much time and effort on the game. And now the treasure of igrostroya was in the hands of an attacker. However, Gabe Newell was not taken aback and offered the guy a job at Valve in the security department. He scheduled an interview for the hacker and even paid for airfare from Germany. However, he also passed information about the attacker to US law enforcement, who were supposed to help Valve welcome the hacker in the United States and file charges of intellectual property theft. The hacker was smart and did not succumb to provocation. He also managed to avoid serious punishment in his native Germany, but the HL2 release did not suffer in the end either.

Gabe Newell reveals his Steam username and password

In 2011, Valve announced the Steam Guard security system, designed to protect gamers from account theft and other fraudulent schemes. Then Valve said that the problem of hacking Steam accounts is one of the most common reasons for users to contact the service support service. This led the company to think that it was time to take the next step in protecting gamers, and developed Steam Guard. Gabe Newell was so confident in the performance new system, who made public his login and password details on Steam so that anyone could try to enter his account. As far as we know, no one has succeeded, the system works perfectly. But since then, we have known Gabin's login and password, unless he has changed these data by now.

Gabe Newell has favorite games

With this item in the list of facts, everything is as simple as possible: we name Newell's favorite games, and you remember. No tricks and extra letters. So, this is Super Mario 64, classic Doom and, mind you, Star Track on punched cards. The latter, however, can hardly be called a video game. It's more like fiddling with a computer for many hours, where you have to wait 10 minutes for your opponent's move, but the taste and color of all felt-tip pens... well, you understand.

Gabe Newell had serious vision problems

In the early 2000s, Gabe Newell himself described his vision problems as follows: "I have dead man's eyes," he said. In fact, he suffered from a disease called corneal endothelial dystrophy. But what is really scary is the high risk of completely losing sight. Newella later underwent several surgeries to restore his vision, and now sees better than ever.

Gabe Newell loves My Little Pony

At one of the conferences, Gabe Newell once admitted that he loves watching the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic series. There is nothing particularly strange or surprising about this fact if you do not know anything about the series. The thing is that the target audience of the cartoon is little girls of kindergarten age. However, this did not prevent the emergence of a whole army of overage fans of the series, among which there are quite a few not only adult women, but also mature men. And Gabe Newell is one of them.

Gabe Newell ported Doom to Windows 95

After the release of Doom and the resounding success of this game, developer id Software became interested in Microsoft. The company decided to invest in id Software, gaining control of the franchise along the way. In the end, this did not happen, and then Bill Gates set out to port Doom to Windows 95. Guess who led the team to implement this project? That's right, it's Gabe Newell. It is quite possible that this is why he loves this game so much, as we mentioned earlier.

Gabe Newell made his first million at Microsoft

Gabe Newell worked at Microsoft for 13 years and became one of the famous millionaires who made his fortune while working for the software giant. But even this is not surprising, but the fact that he left the company, having a prestigious and promising position. And all for the sake of founding Valve. At that time, no one could have imagined that Newell's own company would bring him even more fame and money. But Newell's punchy nature and his truly outstanding ability to do business eventually did the trick.

Gabe Newell is generous

One of the former Valve employees named Eric Wolpaw, who once worked on the script for Portal and Portal 2, fell seriously ill while working at Newell's company. Rather, doctors diagnosed him with a progressive disease called ulcerative colitis. The disease is quite serious. And the point is not only that it can lead to disastrous consequences, but also that people with such diseases need special working conditions and a lot of time to take care of their health. Gabe Newell provided Wolpaw with all the necessary conditions for recovery, including special support clauses in his contract.

We thought for a long time what would be released first: our article or Half-Life 3? As you can see, we won. It’s a pity that old Gabe himself was not warned about this. Perhaps the guy would have at least some incentive. Apparently, all attempts to force Signor Newell to release the third part of the game, which they are eager to see more than Arabs get European citizenship, are powerless. But did Gabe himself become worse from this? He, of course, is very difficult and cunning (and remembering the volume of the priests, one can estimate the volume of cunning), in his 53 years of life he has done enough things for which fans of the gaming industry are ready to rock his gigantic carcass in their arms, earning Schmorl's hernia and protrusion of the intervertebral discs .

"I was born!"

It all started back in 1962, with the help of simple gestures, parents managed to conceive and then squeeze out the future main titan, defender and most famous promoter of the ideas of sacred and righteous PC gaming. Little is known about Gabe Logan Newell's early years, but, apparently, even then he knew a lot about commerce and profit. Ancient manuscripts and Egyptian manuscripts of the 3rd Dynasty begin their narrative from that well-known moment when, back in 1983, a talented programmer took and left his studies anywhere but at Harvard. Still, why such trifles when you are self-confident and act like idols - Bill Gates and Paul Allen, who also dropped out of school.

Actually, Gabe went to them, because the desire to work and the creative talent of the producer were immediately visible. Gabe was visible from afar, not only due to the volume of the body, but also due to his performance. In those days, Windows was not a bunch of programmers of all stripes aimlessly opening windows with the mouse and coming up with new persuasions to upgrade Windows to Windows 10. No, then it was a kosher sabantui of very talented and very greedy young professionals, whose names would subsequently thunder over a small country of computer scientists with a resounding roar. Gabe, like any cheeky butt, claims that he is the reason why the first three releases of Windows turned out so viable, and likes to refer to himself as “producer of the first three releases.”

Newell would have continued to work in the "corporation of evil", but under the lush folds of fat near a good heart, the talent of the creator was hidden, which with every year of work made itself felt more and more. And then at one point the world of video games shook under the onslaught of his beloved offspring. The gaming industry was then still very young and pure girl, but id Software came up with Quake, and it became clear to everyone that the world would never be the same again. Gabe was impressed by the work of former Microsoft graphic designer Michael Abrash, who did the art for Quake.

Sensing the wind of change, Gabe realized that he urgently needed to grab the opportunity and occupy the market that had long been of interest to him. Taking the arm of his friend Mike Harrington, he went into the unknown, creating a corporation that will change the world - Valve. Well, in fact, they had no uncertainty, the gaming industry knew Gabe well, because it was thanks to his efforts that the second game from the DOOM series became available to Windows users. And there shouldn’t have been any special problems with “creating a company from scratch”, because they had money like mud. The fact is that Newell and Harrington were among the first so-called "Microsoft millionaires" - the first employees of the company who got rich on the growth of its shares. For 13 years, the money has accumulated a lot, plus add Newell's diplomatic skills here. A person who at one time was able to convince the industry of the suitability of Windows for games and thus popularized it could not be doomed to defeat.

George Lucas was supposed to distribute the Star Wars source code. Millions of fans could create their own films and stories across the universe. Most of them would be terrible, but some would be brilliant.

What is needed for success?

So, 1996, a terrible and leap year. In Russia, the craziest elections in history, Tupac Shakur was killed in the USA, the start of broadcasting of the STS TV channel. And in the course of these crazy events, no one noticed how two millionaires with a large staff who had spent a lot of money began to rivet history.

The company's first game was to be the 3D shooter Quiver, powered by the Quake engine. It was assumed that the action would take place in a fashionable space at that time, the main character would be Ivan, a space biker. The game was ready in 1997, but Newell was unhappy with the result and decided to extend the development process for another year. But the game was completed only in 1998 and completed so well that old gamers still have tears of joy at the mere mention of it. Half-Life, and nothing else needs to be said. Everything else you yourself know. Gordon Freeman, mount and different kind monstrous bastards, some of which insistently, like a drunken deputy, try to suck your head.

If we were chasing each new fashion, we would have gone bankrupt long ago.

It was a real success. Only the lazy did not laugh at the developments and ambitions of newcomers from Valve, but 2.5 million copies sold quickly forced everyone to shut their filthy mouths. Half-Life had many innovative features: for example, unlike most first-person shooters released at the time, Half-Life did not have in-game videos, and the player could control the character throughout the game. Newell has repeatedly noted that Half-Life was created because the first-person shooters that so delighted him in the early 1990s became boring - a number of innovative solutions helped Newell solve this problem.

After the success of Half-Life and the release of the equally epic second part, Counter-Strike became the new brainchild of the office. It is quite possible that you are reading this article during a break between the game, so it is simply meaningless to talk about the degree of her legendary. And then - the mysterious Portal, the unbalanced exciting Team Fortress, the nightmarish Left 4 Dead and, of course, Dota 2. Well, should you tell something about DotA?

In the bright offices of Valve

When forming the Valve team, Newell often hired not experienced, but young and talented employees, who then went on to achieve great success in the industry. It was Newell who realized the potential of Counter-Strike, a shooter that was originally a modification of Half-Life. He bought the rights to the game and hired the creators of the game to Valve. True, there are other examples. For example, the company employed the Greek economist Janis Varoufakis, hired because Gabe liked his blog about the European financial crisis, a former puppet show performer who created special effects for The Lord of the Rings and King Kong. This was explained by the fact that people who are able to simplify everything are highly valued in the office, but we know that personal sympathy is to blame.

People have come up to me and said:“I keep telling my son/daughter how lucky they are to be on such a team and how proud I am of them.” And then I say to myself: “This person will definitely work with us for at least another 5 years.”

Once upon a time, a manual was leaked onto the Internet, which every new employee of Valve should read. Opposite the name of Newell, the head of the company, there is an inscription: "Of all the people in the company who are not your bosses, Gabe is not the MOST."

In general, the Valve office is an anarchist's dream. Employees independently form working groups, luring each other from project to project. Among themselves, the group only decides who will become the current leader, who will keep in mind all the information about the project and coordinate it. Valve encourages frequent changes in the composition of groups so that they are not swallowed up by the bureaucracy and remain on the side of the user. This approach is manifested, in particular, in the fact that the tables of all employees are equipped with wheels - this simplifies constant movement.

In the literal sense, employees have to invent positions for themselves. But such an alignment is possible only with the complete independence of the company from publishers, from investors - from anyone. The shares belong to the employees, and if one nightmarish day Valve goes bankrupt, then no one can buy it, the employees will be dismissed, and the company will smoothly sink into oblivion.
But the main reason why Valve is flooded with talent is that no one limits anyone. They do not put a person in a framework, they do everything to make it convenient for him to work. But how is a completely different matter. Valve really appreciates people who can do several things at the same time. Even with the public, they communicate with ordinary programmers who have shown talent. Valve is a family, they are comfortable, like a grandmother who has not gone crazy at her birthday party, they even go on a trip together once a year. True, you should not think that you can sit in the office, dangle your foot and do nothing. If you screw up, you will answer in full. And if you want to get there, then be known as a mega-talented artist, designer, programmer. Valve has a reputation for being bounty hunters who recruit talent from all walks of life en masse.

For example, we do not clearly track the time on sick leave or vacation for our employees: since we trust the decisions they make in development, we also trust their time management skills. In fact, it is not so important how many days a person spent on sick leave and whether he was three days late with his vacation or not. But for those who came to work with us, say, from Hollywood, this is beyond their heads. And we tell them that this thing with flexible vacations and an unlimited number of sick days during the year is something like a table on wheels: to make it convenient for everyone to work.

Probably, Gabe's most important talent can be called a fantastic flair and understanding of what the user wants. In the wake of the success of multiplayer online games, Gabe and the team developed Steam, an online distribution service for games produced by Valve. Initially, Newell, who always thought not only about the products produced, but also about the user experience, negotiated with Amazon, Cisco and Yahoo, but he was unable to conclude a contract with any of the companies for the distribution of games, so Steam was launched in 2003. Over time, with the help of the service, other development companies began to distribute their games: SEGA, Atari, Epic Games and others.

Over the 13 years of the service's existence, many features have been added, and recently Valve announced Steam OS - operating system, which will allow players to stream games over their home network and will have more additional features. In addition, Valve promises to release its own game console Steam Machine and Steam Controller. And, of course, let's not forget about the SteamVR virtual reality helmet, developed jointly with NTS. All these products have long been favored by the press and spectators at various gaming exhibitions, but I would like to touch them with tenacious user paws and evaluate them with my own eyes. For some reason, I really want Gabe to win the virtual arms race.

The Steam business model has proven to be very successful and brought huge profits to Valve, thanks to which the company now competes on an equal footing with Sony and Microsoft and is able to release not only games, but also its own hardware.

Daddy Gabe

As you can see by now, Gabe is a real businessman. Maybe in appearance he is big, kind and stupid, like a pillow, but in fact it is enough to get at least a little familiarity with his activities to understand how powerful and enterprising he is. By the way, he manages the company on his own, because Harrington, after he became similar in appearance to Basta, decided to leave the charismatic leader.

Newell, of course, is not a despot, but a powerful corporation is concentrated in his big fist, regularly giving people a spectacle. And despite the scandals associated with the use of marijuana, ordering prostitutes and the use of prostitutes with marijuana, he has a strong family, with two glorious male toddlers. And as for intoxicating herbs... Well, who doesn't happen to them?

Gabe also has an interesting hobby - plumbing. He has set up machines in his garage and in his spare time he grinds various bells and whistles. I even bought barrels of salt for bluing steel, look how tricky! The mechanic himself "from the gaming industry" says that this is a great activity after hours spent in front of the monitor.

We should love Newell for his responsiveness. Unlike many other well-known representatives of the gaming industry, Gabe communicates directly with the audience: he actively participates in discussions on the Steam forums, organizes discussions on issues related to the development of Valve, and often answers letters from users. Recall at least the story when Gabe helped the user faster than the moderators on Steam. Largely due to this, Newell is no longer a person, but just a walking meme. And he, looking at a million jokes dedicated to him, only smiles happily. In any case, we hope so.

However, there are things that the holy fat man cannot take under any sauce. These are consoles. He has a persistent urge to vomit for consoles, he despises people who buy devices that can be played lying down. That's why he is not shy about throwing a couple of sharp phrases at his colleagues.

The PS3 is a total disaster, in many ways. I think it's pretty clear that Sony just lost track of what their customers and developers want. And I think that even now they should just cancel everything and start again. Just say, "That was a terrible misunderstanding, we're sorry about that and we're going to stop selling consoles and urging developers to make games for it."
Quite another matter - Wii. I bet that by next Christmas there will be a lot more Wii sold than the Xbox 360. Some people think I'm nuts, but I really like what Nintendo does.

Although he does not like Windows either. He smashed the filthy "eight" to smithereens, preferring Linux.

Number 3 in Gabe's life

And now let's touch on Newell's main conspiracy secret: why don't Valve games have third parts? Even when Gabe was at Microsoft, Windows 3 was referred to as Windows 2.1. Does this mean he's afraid of the number 3 and we'll never see a new Half-Life?

According to Gabe, today's Valve focuses on strategic goals, providing players and developers with new platforms: the Steam online store, Steam Machines consoles, the HTC Vive virtual reality helmet and other similar products. This does not mean that Valve will no longer develop games, but they are treated by the company as "tools" with which you can learn new skills. As for Half-Life 3, the time for this "tool" has not yet come. Newell said that the company is aware of the experiences of fans of the series and understands them well, but his employees also understand that sometimes you have to wait a very long time for what you want. Finally, he hinted that the real impetus for the emergence of a new part of the game could be mass desire studio workers release it.

Simply put, look at the anarchy in their office. They just can't bring themselves together to do it. But even despite this, Gabe does not cease to be the heaviest and biggest icon of the gaming industry.

After dropping out of Harvard University, Newell spent 13 years at Microsoft, eventually becoming a millionaire. Newell describes himself as "the producer of the first three releases of Windows". Inspired by the work of Michael Abrash, who previously left Microsoft to create computer game Quake by id Software, Newell and another Microsoft employee, Mike Harrington, also left Microsoft and formed the Valve studio in 1996.

Newell, along with Harrington, used his personal capital to finance Valve and the subsequent development of the Half-Life game. For these purposes, the source code of the Quake engine was purchased, which was later heavily reworked. In 1998, the Half-Life series of games was released, which became the basis for such games. popular games and modifications like Counter-Strike and Team Fortress Classic. Soon after Half-Life release the company began to develop the second part of the game. Harrington left the company in 2000, after which Newell bought out his stake.

Newell suffered from Fuchs' dystrophy, a congenital disease in which the cornea of ​​the eye is destroyed, and at some point his vision fell to a critical level, but two corneal transplants restored his vision. “I not only began to see again, I began to see better than ever before. I seemed to be in fairy tale. It dawned on me then how fast the future was coming,” Newell recalls.

• In 2007, Newell openly expressed his displeasure over various restrictions game consoles faced by game developers, in particular, he criticized Sony's policy towards the PlayStation 3 system.

• In December 2010, Forbes magazine included Gabe Newell on their list of "names you should know". Newell was included primarily for his company's work on the digital distribution service Steam, as well as partnerships with some of the major game developers.

• His favorite games are Super Mario 64, Doom and Star Trek, which he played on a Burroughs system. Doom game convinced him that video games are a promising future in entertainment, and Super Mario 64 proved to him that games are also art in some sense.

• A few years ago, Gabe was encouraged by a friend to take up a hobby, after which Newell decided to take up plumbing. Instead of a car, he put a grinding and milling machine in the garage, as well as barrels of salt for bluing steel. In his spare time, Newell makes and crafts gadgets and toys like iPad stands and swords. "I thought it was good vacation after constantly sitting in front of a screen,” Newell explains.

• Valve, with 250 employees, doesn't disclose its financials, but Newell says it's "extremely profitable." Gabe says the company is more profitable per employee than Google and Apple.

• Newell is a subscriber of Blizzard Entertainment's popular MMORPG game World of Warcraft.

• Various sources value Valve Software between $2 billion and $4 billion (rough estimates as of 2011).

• According to Newell, about half of the company's employees are former creators of game modifications.

• Newell controls over half of Valve.

• Gabe Newell is a fan of the animated series My little pony: Friendship is Magic.

• Newell was included in the list of the richest people in the world according to Forbes magazine, ranking 854 in the world and 303 in the US. According to experts, his earnings are 1.5 billion dollars (as of March 2012).

Personal life

Married to Lisa Newell, has two sons. The Newell family lives on the beach in Long Beach.