My favorite person in the IT field - Gabe Newell
Background Info
- Born on November 3, 1962 in Seattle, Washington.
- Gabe attended Harvard University, however he dropped out after three years to begin working at Microsoft.
- He became one of the "Microsoft Millionares."
- Newell worked for Microsoft for 13 years until he left with fellow Microsoft employee Mike Harrington. Together they founded Valve in 1996.
- The duo created the popular game "Half-life" to fund Valve.
- Valve is the owner and maintainer of Steam, the largest digital video game distribution.
- His current net worth is 2.2 Billion
What he means to the IT field
Gabe Newell revolutionized the sales and distribution of video games. Steam, the platform he created for doing so, pushed digital downloads of computer games into the mainstream. Before Steam, most PC games had to be bought from a brick and mortar video game store, taken home, and installed on the user's computer. Very few games were available for download, and those that were had awful download speeds and the servers were incredibly unreliable.
Enter Steam: The gaming platform for a new generation of gaming. Steam made multiplayer and online games and chatting with friends easier than ever. Many video game publishers started creating games for PC's as well as the current generation of consoles due to the ease of use of Steam. Steam enabled small, budding game development companies to get their content out their and into the ever-expanding world of PC gamers. Independent developers working out of their basements are able to share their amazing creations with the world. Gabe Newell ushered in the era of mainstream PC gaming, and has changed the landscape of video game distribution forever.
Enter Steam: The gaming platform for a new generation of gaming. Steam made multiplayer and online games and chatting with friends easier than ever. Many video game publishers started creating games for PC's as well as the current generation of consoles due to the ease of use of Steam. Steam enabled small, budding game development companies to get their content out their and into the ever-expanding world of PC gamers. Independent developers working out of their basements are able to share their amazing creations with the world. Gabe Newell ushered in the era of mainstream PC gaming, and has changed the landscape of video game distribution forever.
What he means to me
I enjoy playing video games with my friends, and steam allows me to do this with ease. Gone are the days of manually setting up a server to host a game, having your friends connect, and still have lag and issues. Steam has a simple "invite to game" option, making inviting my friends to play a game with me a breeze. Steam also hosts many of the game servers themselves, and provide some of the best and most reliable online games. Valve, the company who made Steam, is owned and created by Gabe Newell. Steam, however, is not all that Valve has done that has impacted me. Valve made the Portal series, one of my favorite game series of all time. This, combined with Counter Strike: Global Offensive, make Valve my third favorite video game publishing company..
Here is his glorious face:
And here is him as the king of PC gaming and sales:
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