Who is Gabe. Gabe Newell: heavy icon of the gaming industry. Gabe Newell is one of the 100 richest people in the US

Gabe Newell is an American programmer, billionaire, founder of Valve, a computer game company. The popular projects of the developer are the gaming platforms "Half-Life", "Steam" and others.

Childhood and youth

Gabe Logan Newell was born in early November 1962 in Seattle. Information about parents Gabe Newell prefers not to advertise. In an interview, the entrepreneur said that he began creating computer programs at the age of 13. The young man used the ALGOL programming language.

The hobby contributed to Gabe's admission to Harvard University, but a few years later he dropped out and got a job at the newly created Microsoft company, of which he became the founder. With this bold step, the success story of a talented programmer began.

Career and business

The creation of computer equipment fascinated the young employee, he became one of the developers of the first three versions of Windows. Soon, Gabe, among the first shareholders of Microsoft, increased his fortune to several million, which later influenced his career. In addition to software hardware, Newell became interested in developing game consoles. On the example of the success of "Doom" and " super mario 64, he became convinced of the profitability of this line of business.

After thirteen years of work at Microsoft, the biography of the young programmer changed: together with his friend and colleague Mike Harrington, Gabe decided to create his own computer games company. This happened after the departure of Microsoft employee Michael Ebrash to id Software, the company that began producing the Quake game console.

In 1996, a company called "Valve" appears, the first project of which is the "Half-Life" platform. It was created with the personal savings of the founders Newell and Harrington. The game, which takes place in the secret laboratories of the CIA, immediately found its gamer: in the first months, 2 million copies of the game were sold.

The rules of conduct for employees within Valve have been democratic since the early days. In contrast to the bylaws at Microsoft, which were famous for their corporate austerity, Gabe and his partner decided to create a production structure that was devoid of departments, bosses, managers, and executives. At Valve, employees are allowed to spend working time on personal needs, visiting cafes, gyms and spas. The management model showed its effectiveness - the company's capitalization soon exceeded $1 billion and continued to grow.

Two years after the first success, in the process of creating a modification of "Half-Life-2", Mike Harrington leaves the company, and Newell buys out his partner's shares. In parallel with the improvement of the already famous platform, Gabe begins work on "Steam", which eventually became one of the most popular computer game servers.

The secret of the success of a talented developer is that he himself becomes a big fan of games and continues to play them with passion all these years. The programmer is sure that the creation of consoles is akin to art. Gabe recklessly fights on the World of Warcraft online server. Newell's favorite games are still Super Mario 64, Doom, Dota 2 and Star Trek, and he considers the Spy to be his favorite hero " Team Fortress 2".

The tactic of creating popular shooters like "Counter-Strike" is based on the right selection of personnel. Gabe invites unknown but talented young computer scientists to work for Valve. Under the Half-Life brand, two programs appeared - Counter-Strike and Team Fortress Classic, as well as the mega-popular video games Portal and Left 4 Dead, which were released over the next 10 years.

The company has a legend about the magic of the number "3". This happened after the programs for preparing their third versions did not reach the release date. For example, the Half-Life 3 platform, after many years of preparation, never saw the light of day. So for version 4 famous game The creators decided to change the concept and even introduce a new protagonist - the son of the scientist Freeman.

Thanks to the right policy within the team, in 2010 Gabe Newell was included in the Forbes list as one of the most famous computer scientists in the world. According to statistics, by 2012 the capitalization of Valve's assets totaled $ 2.5 billion, and the percentage of profit for each of the 400 programmers of the firm was higher compared to other developers such as Google and Apple.

The fortune of the owner of the company was equal to $ 1.3 billion. Gabe, like his former boss Bill Gates, became one of the richest people on the planet who did business without having a complete higher education. At the end of 2017, the programmer's fortune reached $ 5.5 billion, which allowed the entrepreneur to enter the list of the 100 richest people in the United States according to Forbes magazine.

Gabe Newell's rise in popularity among gamers depended on his open communication with users. The owner of the gaming concern himself corresponds with the forum users of the Steam site, creates topics for discussion and always answers letters.

Personal life

The personal life of the entrepreneur has developed happily. Gabe Newell has been married to Lisa Newell for over 30 years. There are two children in his family. The owner of Valve now lives near Long Beach in Los Angeles with his wife and sons. Gabe Newell doesn't use social networks, photos of the programmer on Instagram appear on the pages of computer game fans.

Gabe Newell is distinguished by an energetic, life-loving character, which allowed him to overcome a serious illness. In the early 2000s, the programmer survived a dangerous disease called Fuchs' dystrophy, which could deprive him of his sight. At the age of 45, the programmer underwent eye surgery, which allowed him to see as before. The surgery was successful and the diagnosis was defeated. Gabe's health after the operation does not cause concern.

Gabe is fond of collecting edged weapons. The owner of Valve placed some of the samples in his office. The programmer owns 600 blades, including Japanese wakizashi swords, sai tridents and carved knives. For the sake of a hobby, Newell equipped a workshop in the house, where he himself is engaged in forging blades. And the programmer also has an unusual hobby - Gabe is thrilled at the sight of frames of the animated series for children "My Little Pony". The programmer's hobby list includes motorsports.

Gabe Newell's income allows him to allocate funds to charity. The programmer participates in the charity championship The Heart of Racing. Gabe also supports a childhood heart disease clinic in Seattle. At one time, the billionaire also donated funds to the needs of the American Civil Liberties Union.

On the Yandex server in early December 2016, information appeared that the creator of Valve, Gabe Newell, died untimely. But on the official websites of the company, as well as on other news resources, nothing was known about the death of the director. Programmers believe that such news was the result of a computer system error. A few days after the obituary appeared in the public domain, the false entries were removed.

Gabe Newell calmly reacted to the failure in the search engine program and did not even sue Yandex for this error.

Gabe Newell now

In 2017, Gabe participated in the computer tournament "The International 2017" ("International 2017"). Together with TV presenter Casey Aitchison and Jakelem Sir Action Slacks Kanner, Gabe Newell starred in a joke video in which he played the role of a security guard. An announcement was made at the tournament about the release card game"Artifact" based on the "Dota 2" platform. The presentation of the computer product is scheduled for 2018.

Games

Half-Life series
Portal game series
Counter-Strike game series
Series Games Team Fortress
Series Left games 4 Dead
Dota 2 game
Artifact game
Game In the Valley of Gods
GoldSrc, Source and Source 2 game engines

Yesterday, Gabe Newell, the founder and permanent head of Valve, turned 54 years old. His nickname, Gaben (from the combination of GabeN), has long become an Internet meme, and he himself has turned into something like Santa Claus for all gamers in the world. On the occasion of this birthday wonderful person, we have collected 13 interesting facts about him.

Gabe Newell has no higher education

Like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and other famous IT people, Gabe Newell dropped out of university at the time. It was none other than the eccentric Steve Ballmer, the former CEO of Microsoft, who prompted him to take this step. At that time, Ballmer was the head of sales at the company. He convinced Newell that getting an education would only take up his precious time.

Gabe Newell had a hand in creating Windows

As you might guess, dropping out of college, Gabe got a job at Microsoft. He became the 271st employee of the company, and spent 13 years in it. During this time, he managed to have a hand in the development of several early versions of Windows. Years of work and subsequent success operating system brought the future king of PC gaming several million dollars. And then he played Doom.

Gabe immediately understood: games are a real art

Doom game, released in December 1993, quickly became a worldwide hit. Since it originally ran under DOS, Gabe Newell was tasked with porting it to Windows. It was after meeting Doom that Gabe realized that computer games are a real art.

Founding Valve

A little later, another fateful event occurred. Michael Abrash, an acquaintance of Gabe, left Microsoft to create computer game Quake. This game has also become a huge success in the market. It was then that Gabe realized that he had sat up at Microsoft. In 1996, along with Mike Harrington, another employee of the company, Newell quit his job and founded Valve, the most anarchic company in the world, with his own money.

Most Anarchist Company

Earlier, when talking about the history of Valve, we talked about a very unusual internal order of the company. For example, once a manual for new Valve employees was leaked to the network. It says that " Of all the people in the company who aren't your bosses, Gabe isn't the MOST.". Indeed, there are no managers in the company, all employees are equal, and all decisions, including hiring new people, are made jointly. And all this does not prevent the company from earning big money.

crazy money

Valve has never made public its profits, however, they are in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Five years ago, analysts estimated the value of the company at about $4 billion. But two years ago, in the fall of 2014, Google tried to buy the company. Larry Page and Sergey Brin offered $18 billion for Valve. Gabe Newell refused. Probably this amount is still not enough. By the way, Gabe himself is officially recognized as the richest man in gaming industry. According to Forbes, his personal fortune is estimated at about $1.5 billion. How does he manage to earn so much money? The answer is simple: it's all thanks to Steam.

Steam

Digital distribution service Steam games was launched in 2003. Today it is the most famous and popular in the world. Approximately 70% of all digital game sales are made through it. The number of Steam users exceeds 125 million. Of course, some large companies like Ubisoft or Electronic Arts sell their games through their own distribution services. But the vast majority of developers don't bother too much and use Steam as the main way to market their games. What makes Steam so popular among gamers? Incredibly generous discounts.

Gabe Newell - playable Santa Claus

Gabe Newell is perceived by the gaming community as a kind of Santa Claus thanks to the generous sales that are regularly held on the Steam service. The main winter sale is dedicated to the New Year. As a rule, there is also a big summer, sometimes autumn and spring themed sale. For several days, gamers can buy games at huge discounts. In some cases, discounts reach up to 90%. Users joke that during the days of sales they manage to spend half of their salary on games. But they continue to pay again and again.

Gabe Newell - meme man

Gabe Newell became a meme man not only because of discounts on Steam. The main object of users' jokes is the release of the game Half-Life 3, which has not taken place to this day. The last game in the Half-Life series, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, was released more than nine years ago. At the same time, the overall plot of the series remained unfinished. And if earlier Valve representatives periodically mentioned the development in rare interviews, now even gossip is not heard about the continuation.

Half-Life fans were upset at first, then they started joking. According to a fictional fan theory, Half-Life 3 isn't coming out because Gabe Newell avoids the number "3". By the way, in Valve's portfolio, indeed, there is not a single game with this figure. Judge for yourself: the company released portal and Portal 2, Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress and Team Fortress 2. The numbering of games in the Half-Life series also avoids the "three": the original comes first. half-life, then - Half Life 2, and then instead of the third part Half Life 2: Episode One and Half Life 2: Episode Two. During his time at Microsoft, Gabe Newell worked on Windows 1, Windows 2 and… Windows 2.1. And he also has two children.

There are already a mountain of jokes about Gabe's avoidance of the "three". For example, " If Gabe Newell becomes president, Third World War will never start". Gabe Newell himself does not remain in debt and replies that each new joke in the style of " Valve can't count to three"postpones the release of Half-Life 3 for another two months.

Gabe Newell is always there

Despite having billions of dollars in his pocket, Gabe Newell doesn't pretend to be a celestial. He interacts personally with fans, responds to emails, and regularly posts on the Valve forums himself. Interestingly, he found many employees of the company by talking on the Internet. More than half of Valve's 400 developers are former enthusiasts who developed amateur game mods. There is a well-known case when Gabe Newell personally helped the user solve problems with account faster than the company's technical support responded to the request. In general, going online, know: Gabe is somewhere nearby.

Gabe Newell - gamer

You can meet Gabe not only on the forum, but also in online games. He admitted that he plays the MMORPG World of Warcraft quite often, loves Day of Defeat, the Diablo series, Super Mario 64 and Team Fortress. By the way, if someday, while playing Team Fortress, you meet a player with the Rabscuttle login, do not write anything indecent in the chat and do not try to cheat. Otherwise, Rabscuttle (that's, you guessed it, Gabe Newell) will pull out his special admin weapon and kill you, while banning you from the game.

Gaben is the king of PC gamers

Gabe Newell uncompromisingly criticizes consoles and considers the computer to be the best gaming platform. Even the Steam Machine, introduced by Valve in 2014, is still the same gaming PC in a compact package. Gabe Newell especially dislikes Sony and their PlayStation. When the PlayStation 3 console hit the market, Gabe openly called it "a real misunderstanding." All in all, as long as Gabe Newell is alive, you don't have to worry about the future of PC gaming.

Gabe Newell loves metal

Gabe's life is not limited to the computer. Head of Valve loves to tinker with metal. In the garage, he equipped a locksmith's workshop, where he makes various souvenirs, household items and coasters for his huge collection of knives. According to the latest data, the collection includes more than 600 knives and swords from all over the world.

By the way, it is Gabe's love for melee weapons that explains the abundance of various models of knives in the popular shooter from Valve Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

Education

higher unfinished

Company Job title

CEO

Awards and prizes

Biography

Newell, along with Harrington, used his personal wealth to fund 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.

This section is an unordered list of miscellaneous facts about the subject of the article.

Please bring the information in an encyclopedic form and distribute it to the relevant sections of the article. According to the decision of the Wikipedia Arbitration Committee, lists should preferably be based on secondary generalizations containing the criteria for inclusion of elements in the list.

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

Personal life

He is married to Lisa Newell and has two sons.

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Notes

An excerpt characterizing Newell, Gabe

Having passed along the road, on both sides of which the French dialect sounded from the fires, Dolokhov turned into the courtyard of the master's house. Having passed through the gate, he got off his horse and went up to a large blazing fire, around which several people were sitting talking loudly. Something was brewing in a cauldron on the edge, and a soldier in a cap and a blue overcoat, kneeling, brightly lit by fire, interfered with it with a ramrod.
- Oh, c "est un dur a cuire, [You can't cope with this devil.] - said one of the officers sitting in the shade on the opposite side of the fire.
“Il les fera marcher les lapins… [He will go through them…],” another said with a laugh. Both fell silent, peering into the darkness at the sound of the steps of Dolokhov and Petya, approaching the fire with their horses.
Bonjour, messieurs! [Hello, gentlemen!] - Dolokhov said loudly, clearly.
The officers stirred in the shadow of the fire, and one, a tall officer with a long neck, bypassing the fire, approached Dolokhov.
- C "est vous, Clement? - he said. - D" ou, diable ... [Is that you, Clement? Where the hell...] - but he did not finish, having learned his mistake, and, frowning slightly, as if he were a stranger, greeted Dolokhov, asking him what he could serve. Dolokhov said that he and his comrade were catching up with his regiment, and asked, addressing everyone in general, if the officers knew anything about the sixth regiment. Nobody knew anything; and it seemed to Petya that the officers began to examine him and Dolokhov with hostility and suspicion. For a few seconds everyone was silent.
- Si vous comptez sur la soupe du soir, vous venez trop tard, [If you are counting on dinner, then you are late.] - said a voice from behind the fire with a restrained laugh.
Dolokhov replied that they were full and that they had to go further into the night.
He handed over the horses to the soldier who stirred in the bowler hat and squatted by the fire next to the officer with the long neck. This officer, without taking his eyes off, looked at Dolokhov and asked him again: what regiment was he? Dolokhov did not answer, as if he did not hear the question, and, lighting a short French pipe, which he took out of his pocket, asked the officers how safe the road was from the Cossacks ahead of them.
- Les brigands sont partout, [These robbers are everywhere.] - answered the officer from behind the fire.
Dolokhov said that the Cossacks were terrible only for such backward people as he and his comrade, but that the Cossacks probably did not dare to attack large detachments, he added inquiringly. Nobody answered.
“Well, now he will leave,” Petya thought every minute, standing in front of the fire and listening to his conversation.
But Dolokhov began a conversation that had stopped again and directly began to ask how many people they had in the battalion, how many battalions, how many prisoners. Asking about the captured Russians who were with their detachment, Dolokhov said:
– La vilaine affaire de trainer ces cadavres apres soi. Vaudrait mieux fusiller cette canaille, [It's a bad business to carry these corpses around. It would be better to shoot this bastard.] - and laughed out loud with such a strange laugh that it seemed to Petya that the French would now recognize the deception, and he involuntarily took a step back from the fire. No one answered Dolokhov's words and laughter, and the French officer, who was not visible (he was lying wrapped in his greatcoat), got up and whispered something to his comrade. Dolokhov got up and called to the soldier with the horses.
“Will they give horses or not?” thought Petya, involuntarily approaching Dolokhov.
The horses were given.
- Bonjour, messieurs, [Here: goodbye, gentlemen.] - said Dolokhov.
Petya wanted to say bonsoir [good evening] and could not finish the words. The officers whispered something to each other. Dolokhov sat for a long time on a horse that did not stand; then walked out of the gate. Petya rode beside him, wanting and not daring to look back to see whether the French were running or not running after them.
Leaving on the road, Dolokhov did not go back to the field, but along the village. At one point he stopped, listening.
- Do you hear? - he said.
Petya recognized the sounds of Russian voices, saw the dark figures of Russian prisoners by the fires. Going down to the bridge, Petya and Dolokhov passed the sentry, who, without saying a word, walked gloomily along the bridge, and drove out into a hollow where the Cossacks were waiting.
- Well, goodbye now. Tell Denisov that at dawn, at the first shot, - said Dolokhov and wanted to go, but Petya grabbed his hand.
- Not! he yelled, “you are such a hero. Ah, how good! How excellent! How I love you.
“Good, good,” said Dolokhov, but Petya did not let him go, and in the darkness Dolokhov saw that Petya was leaning towards him. He wanted to kiss. Dolokhov kissed him, laughed and, turning his horse, disappeared into the darkness.

X
Returning to the guardhouse, Petya found Denisov in the entryway. Denisov, in agitation, anxiety and annoyance at himself for letting Petya go, was waiting for him.
- God bless! he shouted. - Well, thank God! he repeated, listening to Petya's enthusiastic story. “And why don’t you take me, because of you I didn’t sleep!” Denisov said. “Well, thank God, now go to bed.” Still vzdg "let's eat to utg" a.
“Yes… No,” said Petya. “I don’t feel like sleeping yet. Yes, I know myself, if I fall asleep, it's over. And then I got used to not sleeping before the battle.
Petya sat for some time in the hut, joyfully recalling the details of his trip and vividly imagining what would happen tomorrow. Then, noticing that Denisov had fallen asleep, he got up and went into the yard.
It was still quite dark outside. The rain had passed, but the drops were still falling from the trees. Near the guardroom one could see the black figures of Cossack huts and horses tied together. Behind the hut, two wagons with horses stood black, and a burning fire burned red in the ravine. The Cossacks and hussars were not all asleep: in some places, along with the sound of falling drops and the close sound of horses chewing, soft, as if whispering voices were heard.

Once Newell studied at Harvard (Harvard University); However, he never completed his studies. Leaving the university ahead of schedule, Gabe entered Microsoft; he worked there for 13 years - having managed, among other things, to take part in the development of the first three versions of the Windows operating system. Inspired by the example of Michael Abrash, who left Microsoft for id Software, to join the Quake team, Newell left the corporation and, together with another former employee of the company, Mike Harrington, created in 1996 "Valve".

During their first major project, Half-Life, Newell and Harrington supported the company with their own cash.

While working on "Half-Life 2" Gabe concentrated on working on the "Steam" project for a while - and did not lose; Now "Steam" is perhaps one of the most popular services for the sale of electronic versions of computer games.

In 2007, Newell openly admitted his dislike for developing software for game consoles in general and the "PlayStation 3" in particular; Newell called the very creation of software for set-top boxes a waste of time for all participants in the process. However, in 2010, Gabe changed his anger to mercy - and even announced the development of the console version of one of his most anticipated hits - "Portal 2".

In December 2010, "Forbes" included Newell in the list of "Names to Know"; Gabe deserved it in the first place by working on "Steam" and partnering with a number of outstanding developers in the process of this work.

Gabe is married to Lisa Newell; now they have two sons.

For some time, Newell suffered from Fuchs' dystrophy, a serious disease of the retina. He managed to overcome the disease with two retinal transplant operations - in 2006 and 2007.

Gabe's favorite computer games are "Super Mario 64", "Doom" and "Star Trek" in the mainframe variation "Burroughs". Newell said that at one time it was "Doom" that convinced him that computer games were the future of the entertainment industry - and it was "Super Mario 64" that showed him that computer games can be art.

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Love and sickness

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 had previously left Microsoft to create id Software's Quake computer game, Newell and fellow Microsoft employee Mike Harrington also left Microsoft to form Valve in 1996.

Newell, along with Harrington, used their 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 popular games and modifications as Counter-Strike and Team Fortress Classic. Shortly after the release of Half-Life, 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 convinced him that video games were a promising future for entertainment, and Super Mario 64 proved to him that games are art in some way.

A few years ago, a friend advised Gabe to start 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).