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Valve co-founder and chairman Gabe Newell gave one of his rare interviews to New Zealanders 1 News. There he discusses his admiration for the island country, where he recently applied for residency after taking refuge there during the COVID-19 pandemic. He also used the interview to confirm that Valve did indeed have new games in development (although he declined to provide more details) and responded to rumors that the company was considering setting up an office in New Zealand.
Above all, it looks like Newell is having an absolutely lovely time in a country that has not reported any deaths from COVID-19 since September of last year. He says he attends motorsport races and is interested in neuroscience, while Valve employees in the United States have been stuck at home for months. Unsurprisingly, although Newell recently denied reports that Valve were actively planning to set up an office in the country, he said the company’s employees had a “strong interest” in moving.
“There is a lot of grassroots interest inside the company for some people to move,” says Newell, adding that New Zealand’s public health infrastructure is now “of a high standard. critical value ”for a business in the era of a pandemic.
“It’s like there’s a new element that has been discovered called ‘non-stupidium’, and New Zealand is one of the world producers of it – it’s actually something that was built by New Zealanders, ”says Newell,“ It’s absolutely, incredibly valuable – as any high-tech company would say our people will be much more productive in New Zealand than they will be in Ireland, Los Angeles or many other places.
Inevitably, the interview touches on Valve’s future games Half life and Portal franchises. Although Newell declined to provide exact details (“I haven’t talked about these things for a long time and hope to continue not to talk about them until they are moot questions.”), He confirmed that the company had games going. development. “It’s fun to ship games,” he says.
It might not be much, but it’s reassuring that a studio with such an enviable catalog of titles is still planning to release more games in the future – not least because Valve has acquired. Fire watch developer Campo Santo in 2018, after teasing his impressive following, In the valley of the gods. Last year, Valve made their long-awaited return to single-player games with the excellent VR-exclusive Half-life: Alyx, with some employees reporting that its development had sparked “the enthusiasm and creativity of the studio” to release more games.
You can view the full interview on 1 News.
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