The head of Valve seems to like the country a lot.

Gabe Newell only planned to stay in New Zealand for a small holiday in March, but he got stuck in the country instead of going back to the United States, and as a token of appreciation for the hospitality, he wants to hold a free concert. (We previously wrote about it, but it got postponed.) Still, Gaben has been in New Zealand since March, and with it, he keeps himself away from the coronavirus global pandemic (although the country registered a new infected after three weeks of silence), which is reasonable: the country is a prime example of defending.

Newell has been a special guest of Geoff Keighley The Game Awards Zoom conference, and here, he talked about New Zealand, the pandemic, Valve, and virtual reality. While most of it is still not public due to an NDA (non-disclosure agreement), Valve News Network learned that Newell is planning to meet Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister of New Zealand, to have more developers work in the country to avoid the issues of remote working. Although the video doesn’t specifically name Valve, we are talking about the head of Valve after all…

„Because I’ve been going on a pro-New Zealand campaign lately, I’m probably going to be meeting with the Prime Minister, and one of the positions I’m going to be arguing for is that, given there is something super valuable that has been created here in New Zealand due to the hard work of the population of New Zealand, there is likely a large want to temporarily relocate production teams into the country,” Newell said, adding that Valve’s productivity fell by 50-75%, without a proper solution to get used to the changes of working from home, possibly being another reason behind the relocation.

Who would Newell bring over, and how long would they stay here? Its organising feels like a nightmare, but it could benefit New Zealand if the developers are properly tested. If everyone is healthy, then they wouldn’t spread the infection, plus they would boost the economy of the country (paying taxes and consuming…), not to mention that their work would be more efficient, possibly making it a win-win situation, including the players.

Source: PCGamer

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