Interview with Gabe Newell

Posted by Mitchell J. Skurnik @ 07/13/2003 00:15:00

I decided to look at the archives of the site from when it was stiff being developed and I found this interview...i dont know who on the staff did it but here it is

When you were making Half-Life( HL) did you think it was going to be so successful?

Newell: No, we had no idea. By the end of this year, we'll have sold around 2.5 million copies of Half-Life. Opposing Force is the best selling add-on for a game ever. MODs for Half-Life are so popular (e.g. Counter-Strike) that they are being turned into retail products.We certainly hoped that by listening to gamers' issues and ideas for what they wanted out of action games that we'd be able to build an audience, but nothing like what has happened.

How man copies were sold? and are being sold now every month?

Newell: I'm not sure on a monthly basis, but the Game of the Year edition was back up in the top 20 recently.

When you worked for Microsoft, did you ever meet old Big Bill? If so what was he like, think he has linux on one of his home PC's?

Newell

Microsoft was a very different place when I joined. Nobody had ever heard of the company, it was the third largest software developer in the suburbs of Seattle, and Bill would come play poker at the apartment my brother and I shared with another programmer.

Most people don't realize it, but Microsoft shipped Xenix (it's variant of UNIX) before it shipped Windows. For a long time Microsoft was the #1 vendor of UNIX in the world (at least on a unit basis). Bill probably doesn't have Linux on any machine he uses regularly simply because he believes in a phrase that Steve Ballmer uses a lot - "eating your own dog food."

Gordon Freeman, how did you come up with this charactor? Is it based on anyone?

Newell: Gordon is basically a tabula rosa that doesn't interfere with the players ability to immerse themselves in the game.

The G-man, where did this character come from? Any past friends or foes modeled after this one?

Newell: Marc Laidlaw and Chuck Jones were really the people who came up with him.

Have or do you play HL in your spare time? Multiplayer?

Newell: All the time. I was in a playtest of Frontline Force on Friday.

What mods do you play for HL?

Newell: I play most of them just to get a sense for what people in the community are coming up with.

Are you a fan of Carmack's work on the quake series?

Newell: Absolutely. I don't think most people realize the extent to which John has contributed to the overall gaming technical community. John is extraordinarily open with other developers on programming and design issues, and his contributions are not only the games he has made, but all of the other games he has helped make better.

As Lead Director do you still have time to be a gamer?

Newell: Yep. I've been playing Alice, Giants, Sacrifice, and Diablo 2 recently. And Heroes of Might and Magic, which I can't seem to break myself of.

Are you looking forward to any upcoming releases? Tribes 2, Duke Nukem Forever, etc..

Newell: I'm looking forward to the Diablo 2 expansion, since I'm a Diablo addict. I can't wait for Soul Caliber 2, and am pretty curious to see how The Bouncer and Black & White turn out.