Gabe Newell to take home top award at GDC 2010

Gabe Newell, celebrated co-founder of Valve and co-inventor of ‘Valve Time‘, will be bestowed with the revered Pioneer Award at this year’s Games Developer Conference in March. The award itself is given to those ‘responsible for developing a vital technology or game design at a crucial juncture in video game history, paving the way for the many who followed them.’ Previous recipients of the prestigious Pioneer Award include: Ralph Baer, the inventor of the Magnavox Odyssey, and Alexey Pajitnov, the creator of Tetris.

Newell had been selected by an esteemed committee of developers ‘for his work in co-creating the PC key digital download service Steam,’ which, despite a rocky start, has since become the defining platform for digital distribution and wallet annihilating sales. In addition to this, Newell has also been acknowledged for ‘helping to make possible some of the most important video games of the past two decades – from the Half-Life series through Portal to Team Fortress and beyond.’

Let’s just hope that Newell has a particular fondness for making major announcements regarding third parts of series’ during large award ceremonies.