Valve co-founder Gabe Newell has been stuck in New Zealand for months now but he likes it so much that he’s thinking of moving the company there.
The pandemic has rendered several countries around the world into dangerous places that you should avoid at all costs. Okay it’s a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the idea.
There are exceptions of course and one of these countries that has proven to be THE go-to place to avoid all things COVID is none other than New Zealand, which has basically eradicated the virus.
For Valve co-founder Gabe Newell, he’s been stuck in New Zealand for several months now (as per Kotaku Australia). However, he’s been loving the beautiful country so much that he’s legit thinking of relocating Valve to New Zealand permanently.
Chatting to TVNZ about possibly bringing Valve’s DOTA 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive esports tournaments to New Zealand, Newell says that the idea gets “more realistic all the time” given how the rest of the world has handled the pandemic.
Seeing how America has handled the pandemic in such shambolic fashion and how Valve is based in Seattle, Newell says that there’s “a lot of interest at a grass roots level inside of the company” to have some employees relocate to New Zealand as “[New Zealand has] been great at keeping the epidemic under control.”
It’s quite the change of heart from Newell, who said in 2020 that there were no plans to open up a Valve office in New Zealand.
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But before the gaming industry gets too excited at a NZ Valve branch, Newell is cautious and keeping an eye on how things go first because moving a studio of Valve’s size to the other end of the world is a huge logistical challenge.
“You don’t want to uproot a bunch of families, have them come here, and then the situation gets a bunch better and then they have to turn around and go back,” says Newell. “So that’s why getting a better handle on how long the epidemic is going to be affecting our operational decisions is important to that.”
It would be fantastic to have Valve move to New Zealand given the game development talent present in the country and Australia, but let’s just see what happens first. If it doesn’t happen, getting Valve’s DOTA 2 International global tournament would be a nice consolation prize.
Check out Valve co-founder Gabe Newell talking about being stuck in New Zealand:
