Gabe Newell

The co-founder of Valve, Gabe Newell, was born on November 3, 1962. He is married to Lisa Newell and has two sons. He works for Valve Corporation and has made many video games with them like Half-Life, Counter Strike, Left 4 Dead, and Team Fortress 2 with constant updates to many of their games. Gabe Newell has done a lot with Valve that has changed many different ways we play video games.

"After dropping out of Harvard University, Newell spent thirteen years working for Microsoft Corporation, ultimately becoming a 'Microsoft Millionaire.'" He described himself as a producer of the first three releases of Windows. Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington, another Microsoft employee, left Microsoft to find Valve in 1996. Both of the former employees used their money to fund Valve. Eventually they will find success through the development of their first game, Half-Life.

After a year of delays, finally being released on November 1998, the game was a big success for Valve, selling eight million copies in 2004, and twenty million units in 2006. It won over 50 PC Game of the Year awards. Later, Gabe, and Valve employees, started making full games from popular Half-Life mods. One of these mods would become, "The #1 Online Action Game in the World." That game is known today as the popular game, Counter-Strike.

Counter-Strike is a tactical first-person shooter video game made by Valve which came from a Half-Life modification made by Minh 'Gooseman' Le and Jess 'Cliffe' Cliffe. The game lets you play either as the terrorist or counter-terrorist team. The only way to win is to complete the objective and/or eliminate the enemy team. Counter-Strike has made $4.2 million from its release on November 2000 to December 2008. The game was so popular that it ended up being the #1 Online Action Game released to the public.

Gabe Newell has left Microsoft to find Valve and made tons of money off of many games they made. He had also held many positions in the Systems, Applications, and Advanced Technology divisions while he was working at Microsoft for 13 years. His first few games made with Valve made them a lot of money over the years. Gabe has been a great person both in his work and outside of his work. Right now, I hope he continues doing what he does best; making insanely popular games, like the two described above, everyone will love.