Valve is one of the biggest development and publishing companies in the video game industry, which makes its CEO, Gabe Newell, one of the most famous company directors with a reputation both good and not so good. Having been responsible for numerous fan favorite franchises like Half Life, Left 4 Dead, Portal and Team Fortress as well as the download platform Steam, he's also a lover of games as he recently discussed what has helped him develop as a game creator.
While Valve has covered a ton of different game genre's throughout the years, Gabe Newell says one of his inspirations is Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto and his oeuvre of work. In a conversation about whether he still enjoyed playing games, the Valve founder said he found Miyamoto's were not only fun, but have helped make him a better developer over the years.
Such a fan of Nintendo games is he, that both he and his son actually visited the Nintendo headquarters in Japan many years ago where they got to play Super Mario Galaxy alongside Miyamoto himself. There was even a casual discussion between the two gaming legends about a possible joint project in the future. However, nothing much seems to have come from this, but there are likely hordes of gamers out there who would be thrilled if these two behemoths ending up working together.
Gabe Newell is something of a force in video game development and publishing. Having previously worked for Microsoft, he formed Valve Corporation back in 1998 and soon launched its first game Half Life. This single release became one of the most significant moments in PC gaming history and helped skyrocket the company to fame where they've maintained their status pretty much ever since thanks in large part to the launch of Steam, which has become the number one client for downloading PC games.
"Playing Miyamoto's games, it's like, one, they're a lot of fun, but I can't think of any of his games I've ever played that didn't make me better as a game developer."
Despite their huge success, a certain degree of controversy has always followed in Newell's wake. After the cliffhanger ending of Half Life 2: Episode 2, fans have been eagerly awaiting the next installment, but the Valve CEO has all but dodged any serious discussion about the possibility of a Half Life 3 being in development. It's arguably one of the most talked about (non-existent) games in history, and even though Gabe Newell seems unwilling to talk about whether it's going to happen or not, it doesn't seem to stop fans from wanting it so badly.
Source: Nintendo Life