Gabe Newell is already well-known as a video game legend, and now he’s being honored across the pond.
The Valve CEO will be awarded with the British Academy of Film and Television’s fellowship next month. The award is given annually to an individual for their contributions to the video game industry. Former winners include legends like Peter Molyneux, Shigeru Miyamoto, Nolan Bushnell and Will Wright.
“It is an honor for myself and everyone at Valve to be presented such an award by one of the world’s most respected and recognized organizations,” Newell said in a statement. “Valve owes a tremendous thanks to many in the UK – to those who have played our games, to the great support of the UK press, and to UK-based creative contributors such as Garry Newman. I look forward to accepting this prestigious honor on behalf of everyone in our community.”
Newell, a former 13-year Microsoft vet, is best known for his leadership with award-winning franchises like Half-Life, Counter Strike, Left 4 Dead, Portal and Team Fortress. He also recently became just the 17th member of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) Hall of Fame as the 2013 inductee.
Newell was also the keynote at last week’s DICE Summit and spoke about how Valve is re-thinking what games are and how you sell them. He said that Steam for Linux gives people freedom to innovate on an alternate operating system. “It’s a get-out-of-jail free pass for our industry if we need it,” Newell said.
Finally, Newell made more headlines when he and director J.J. Abrams sent excitement throughout the gaming and movie worlds when discussing making games and movies together.
In terms of Valve as a company, up to 25 people were let go from the Android and hardware departments two weeks ago. A few employees told Gamasutra that the cuts were part of a “great cleansing” and “large decisions.”
