# Digital Media Concepts/Gabe Newell

Gabe Logan Newell was born on November 3rd, 1962. Newell started as computer programmer, who eventually went on to co-found the company of Valve, with Mike Harrington. Before the creation of valve, he went to Harvard University, and dropped out due to a offer he took at Microsoft. With Microsoft Newell spent ten years at Microsoft working on early versions of the Windows 95 operating system. Gabe and his friend Mike Harrington, both saw that video games where the future of entertainment due to releases like Doom and Quake being so successful. So they both left and started Valve L.L.C (later to be called Valve Corparation) in 1996, along with becoming its president. More than twenty years later, Gabe Newell still remains to be the president of Valve.

# Career

Gabe Newell went to Harvard university from the years of 1980 to 1983, then he dropped out of college to go and work for Microsoft. While at Microsoft, Newell helped produced the first three versions of Windows 95'. In the year, 1996, Gabe and his friend Mike Harrington left Microsoft in order to start their own company, Valve L.L.C and went on to make the game Half-Life and build the GoldSrc game engine. Valve L.L.C eventually went on to produce Steam which was the first digital distributor for video games, it made it easier for developers to patch and release their games. The first game to utilize steam was Half-Life 2, which was required to play the game.. Later on in 2004, Valve released the Source engine, along with Counter Strike: Source. Valve continued to make games from 2004-2012, with games like Left 4 Dead, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, and DOTA 2 In the year of 2013, Valve announced that they will go on to create the Steam Machine to appeal more to the console players.

# Personal Life

Gabe Newell was born on November 3, 1962 in Seattle, Washington, US. Not much is known about his childhood due to him not disclosing it to the public. He went to Harvard from 1980 to 1983. Then he married Liza Mennet Newell in 1996, the same year Valve was created. Gabe has also suffered from Fuchs' dystophy, a disease that affects the cornea and distorts vision, but was cured by two cornea transplants that happened from 2006 - 2007. The gaming community has turned to calling Gabe, "Gaben", due to how it is worded in his work email with it being gaben@valvesoftware.com.

# Works

Newell started Valve with the intent of making games. With Half-Life being the huge success that it was sparked the modding community. Many mods were made using Half-life's GoldSrc engine. Some of the mods that were made were bought out by Valve and released as actual games. Games such as Team Fortress, Day of Defeat, and Counter Strike .Newell was also given thanks from the developers of Dark Messiah of Might & Magic, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic: Elements, Deus Ex, Dino D-Day, Evolve, Hatred, Limbo, & SiN Episodes: Emergence. He was given thanks for helping the developers with either the production or business side of development. When Gabe Newell started Valve L.L.C., he also helped produce the Gold Src engine. Along with the future version of Gold Src, Source. He also helped the development of Steam during the production of Half-Life 2. He also has stated that Valve is working on other single player games, but has not released anything to the public beside saying that, there are games in the works
| Game Title | Year of Release | Credited for |
| Counter Strike: Global Offensive | 2012 | Production |
| DOTA 2 | 2013 | Production |
| Half Life: Counter Strike | 2000 | Production |
| Counter Strike: Condition Zero | 2004 | Business |
| Day of Defeat: Source | 2005 | Business |
| Half Life 2: Episode 1 | 2006 | Business |
| Half Life 2: Episode 2 | 2007 | Business |
| Half Life 2: Lost Coast | 2005 | Business |
| Half Life: Blue Shift | 2001 | Business |
| Half Life: Opposing Force | 1999 | Business |
| The Orange Box | 2007 | Business |
| Counter Strike: Source | 2004 | Unclassified |
| Deus Ex: Human Revolution | 2011 | Unclassified |
| Gunman Chronicles | 2000 | Unclassified |
| Half Life | 1998 | Unclassified |
| Homeworld 2 | 2003 | Unclassified |
| Portal | 2007 | Unclassified |
| Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines | 2004 | Unclassified |

# References

* ↑ "Gabe Newell's LinkedIn". Retrieved 9 February 2017.
* ↑ "Creative Minds: Gabe Newell". Retrieved 9 February 2017.
* ↑ "The Final Hour's of Half-Life 2". Retrieved 9 February 2017.
* ↑ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-11-04/valve-lines-up-console-partners-in-challenge-to-microsoft-sony
* ↑ "The Master of Online Mayhem". Retrieved 9 February 2017.
* ↑ "The Final Hour's of Half-Life 2". Retrieved 9 February 2017.
* ↑ http://www.pcgamer.com/gabe-newell-valve-is-using-source-2-for-unannounced-products/