Gabe Newell

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Gabe Newell

Born November 3, 1962 (1962-11-03) (age 45)
Occupation Managing director, Co-founder of Valve Corporation

Gabe Newell (born November 3, 1962) is the co-founder and managing director of game development company Valve Corporation.

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[edit] Work

After dropping out of Harvard University[1] Newell spent thirteen years working for Microsoft Corporation, ultimately becoming a "Microsoft Millionaire." Newell has described himself as "producer on the first three releases of Windows".[2] Inspired by Michael Abrash, who left Microsoft to work on the Quake game at id Software, Newell and another Microsoft employee Mike Harrington left Microsoft to found Valve in 1996.[2] He and Harrington used their money to fund Valve through the development of Half-Life.

During production on Half-Life 2, he spent several months focusing on the Steam project.[3]

Gabe is notorious for expressing his displeasure for the Playstation 3 on numerous occasions, having stated that it is "a waste of everybody's time"[4] and "A disaster on many levels" and that "I'd say, even at this late date, they should just cancel it and do a do over. Just say, 'This was a horrible disaster and we're sorry and we're going to stop selling this and stop trying to convince people to develop for it"[5]. Because Valve did not want to handle the port of the The Orange Box from the Xbox 360/PC version to the Playstation 3 version, the project was given to EA, resulting in a sub-par Playstation 3 experience according to several previews.[6]

[edit] Personal life

Gabe is married to Lisa Newell and has two sons. The Newell family lives on the Long Beach Peninsula.[7]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Victoria Murphy Barret, It's A Mod, Mod Underworld, Forbes.com, December 12, 2005
  2. ^ a b CVG Staff (28 September, 2007). Creative Minds: Gabe Newell. computerandvideogames.com. Retrieved on 2008-01-05.
  3. ^ Geoff Keighley. The Final Hours of Half-Life 2. GameSpot UK. Retrieved on 2008-01-05.
  4. ^ Mark Androvich. PS3 a "waste of time" says Valve's Newell. GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved on 2008-02-22.
  5. ^ Stuart Bishop. Valve: PS3 a "total disaster on so many levels". computerandvideogames.com. Retrieved on 2007-01-15.
  6. ^ Joe Martin. Orange Box on PS3 largely unplayable. Bit-Tech.net. Retrieved on 2008-02-22.
  7. ^ Sally Macdonald. TUNED TO THE DUNES. Seattle Times. Retrieved on 2008-01-05.

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