Born on November 3, 1962, ‘Gabe Newell’ is the co-founder and managing director of video game development and online distribution company Valve Corporation. Gabe was dropped out from the Harvard University. After being dropped out from Harvard University, he spent thirteen years working for the Microsoft Corporation. He became a Microsoft Millionaire after working with Microsoft Corporation. He was inspired by Michael Abrash who left Microsoft to work on computer game Quake at id Software. Along with another Microsoft employee, Mie Harrington, he left Microsoft in 1996. They began to search valve using their money through the development of Half-Life.

Gabe openly expressed his displeasure on developing software for gaming consoles in 2007. Particularly, he focused on the PlayStation 3. In the year 2010, he appeared on stage at Sony’s Keynote where he acknowledged his past outspoken comments on console development. On the stage, he discussed open nature of Sony’s PlayStation 3 platform and made announcement of Portal 2 for the console. However, he has also criticized Xbox Live Service. Newell refers it as ‘a train wreck’. Besides his developing software for gaming consoles, he also gained recognition for criticizing Microsoft’s latest operating system Windows 8. He called it a catastrophe and will certainly be a threat to usually open nature of PC gaming.

Forbes named Gabe Newell as ‘A Name You Should Know’ in 2010. He was given that title for his work on Steam with having partnerships with multiple major developers. Newell was ranked at 854th place out of 1226 global billionaires. He had an estimated net worth amount of $1.5 billion in March 2012. For his outstanding and exceptional creative contribution to Video games world, he was awarded with ‘BAFTA Fellowship Award’ in March 2013. Gabe has achieved high level of recognition as a multi billionaire from his tremendous effort in the games industry. As of 2014, he has earned total net worth amount of $1.5 billion.