Gabe Newell says Valve has multiple games in development and ‘wants to do more solo’

Valve co-founder and CEO Gabe Newell has confirmed that the Half-Life company has several games in development and wants to create more single-player experiences.

Newell, who has lived and worked in New Zealand since early 2020, suggested the Washington, US-based company was energized by its experience creating the VR title Half-Life Alyx, released last March.

“We definitely have games in development that we’re going to announce – it’s fun to ship games,” he told 1 NEWS.

“Alyx was awesome – coming back to playing single player games, it created a lot of momentum within the company to do more.”

However, Newell declined to be drawn about the new Half-Life and Portal games when asked about potential sequels.

“I managed not to talk about these things for a long time and I hope to continue not to talk about them until they are moot questions,” he said. “Then we’ll go to a new round of questions.

“The good thing is that by not answering these questions, I prevent the community from coming up with new questions that are just as difficult to answer.”

Alyx, the first Half-Life game in almost 13 years, was released exclusively for PC-based VR hardware.

VGC’s Half-Life: Alyx review called the shooter “an amazing comeback for Half-Life and an essential VR buy – if you have the right gear and space.”

Newell initially traveled to New Zealand in March for a 10-day family vacation, but decided to stay when the country announced it was closing its borders due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

He told 1 NEWS that he has now been granted residency in New Zealand in principle and that he intends to stay in the country “for the foreseeable future”.

He also said a number of his colleagues have expressed interest in moving to New Zealand. “There is a lot of grassroots interest within the company for some people to move.”