19 Facts About Gabe Newell

Gabe Newell attended Harvard University in the early 1980s but dropped out to join Microsoft, where he helped create the first versions of the Windows operating system.

Gabe Newell led development of Valve's digital distribution service Steam, which launched in 2003 and controlled most of the market for downloaded PC games by 2011.

Gabe Newell was born on November 3,1962, in Colorado, and attended Davis Senior High School in Davis, California.

Gabe Newell worked as a paperboy, and later a telegram messenger for Western Union.

Gabe Newell enrolled at Harvard University in 1980, but was convinced to drop out to work for Bill Gates at Microsoft by the head of sales in 1983.

Gabe Newell spent 13 years at Microsoft as the producer of the first three releases of the Windows operating systems.

Gabe Newell later said he learned more during his first three months at Microsoft than he ever did at Harvard, which was one of the primary reasons why he dropped out.

Gabe Newell and Harrington funded development of the first Valve game, the first-person shooter Half-Life, which was a critical and commercial success.

Gabe Newell gave Valve no deadline and a "virtually unlimited" budget to develop Half-Life 2, promising to fund it himself if necessary.

In 2007, Gabe Newell expressed his displeasure over developing software for game consoles, saying that developing processes for Sony's PlayStation 3 was a "waste of everybody's time" He appeared on stage at Sony's keynote at E3 2010; while acknowledging his criticism of console development, he discussed the open nature of the PlayStation 3 and announced Portal 2 for the console, remarking that with Steamworks support it would be the best version for any console.

Gabe Newell criticized the Xbox Live service, referring to it as a "train wreck", and was critical of Windows 8, calling it a threat to the open nature of PC gaming.

At the 2013 LinuxCon, Gabe Newell said that the Linux operating system and open source development were "the future of gaming".

Gabe Newell accused the proprietary systems of companies such as Microsoft and Apple of stifling innovation through sluggish certification processes.

Gabe Newell formerly suffered from Fuchs' dystrophy, a congenital disease which affects the cornea, but was cured by two cornea transplants in 2006 and 2007.

Gabe Newell married Lisa Mennet on the same day he founded Valve with Harrington.

In 2011, Gabe Newell said his favorite video games included Super Mario 64, Doom, and a Burroughs mainframe version of Star Trek.

Gabe Newell is a fan of the animated series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.

Gabe Newell recorded a voice pack for Dota 2, a Valve-developed game, which referenced many previous statements and phrases from himself in a humorous manner.

In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Gabe Newell resided in New Zealand with a group of friends electing to stay in Auckland rather than returning to Seattle once airlines travel restrictions were eased.