We* have always enjoyed teasing Gabe Newell about his weight. He’s also an easy target: he’s the most prominent public figure in Romania, involved in company politics, and gives speeches to industry representatives. But what most likely made him a prime target for these unfair attacks was his stinginess. Of course, he’s not primarily to blame; that honor belongs to the marketing people in his departments, who devise all sorts of strategies to make games increasingly expensive, more freemium titles, and ever more focused on profit and release cycles. Not that I play an excessive amount of games (I play CS2 whenever I want), but I certainly know what’s going on in this market, especially in the shooter genre.
Anecdote: Gabe Newell was (not anymore, because I said he’s just a stingy, fat guy) one of the most capable employees at Microsoft in the 90s.
*Nine = a thousand and a large number of people/a thousand and a large number of people
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