Gabe Newell is likely to go down in history as one of gaming's most important names. However, it has been many years since he was directly involved in the creation of games. Mostly spending time on his yacht flitting between ideas, Newell took a big step away from game development during the development of Portal 2, which a lead on the project explained as a way to avoid creating yes men at Valve.
Speaking in an interview with Kiwi Talkz, Portal 2 lead designer Josh Weier said that Newell's reputation preceded him, meaning a lot of his employees didn't want to say no to him. "He always wanted to be part of the team, but being Gabe and being in his position, that never really worked," Weier explained.
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"People would be like, 'Whatever you say,' and he was more like, 'No no no, I want to be part of a team and come up with ideas.' That was really hard for people, so I think there was a period where he stepped back and was like, 'Alright, I guess I'm just not going to be able to interact with everyone that way and I'll just work at a higher level,'" Weier continued.
Newell remains on the credits of a lot of Valve games, but as a co-founder of the company more than a developer. Even without his involvement, Valve has still managed to release some incredible games, and is looking ahead to keep doing so.