Watch Gabe Newell deliver Steam Decks and recall his days as a telegram boy

A few days ago, some people on Reddit claimed that Gabe Newell personally delivered signed Steam decks to them. Accompanied by a slightly blurry photo of what looked like a playable Santa Claus, some suspected that the head of Valve was indeed driving around in Seattle delivering decks: shouldn’t this guy be in New Zealand anyway?

Now Valve has posted a video of Newell beating some of the lucky ones, which is a pretty rewarding sight. Ask yourself, how would you react to the appearance of Gabe Newell in your house? Well, no one goes crazy and starts screaming about Half-Life 3 – which is a shame – but most people know who he is, and one guy manages to strike up a quick conversation about Final Fantasy 14.

Seattle Rain Pidgeons User, posting to r/steam, claimed to have seen Newell and a film crew deliver goods to their neighbors’ house. They greeted each other, after which he gave them signed decks, despite the fact that they had no pre-orders. Which just sounds like a wet dream of a nerd: but no, at that very moment, it happens Right here.

However, the most satisfying element of this video, besides being able to watch Gabe walk around and enjoy being the real Santa Claus, is Newell’s insistence on giving each customer his personal email address. He’s been doing this for as long as I can remember, and I still remember how ticklish it was when Valve started leaving developer comments on their games, and without fail, Newell always included his email. Imagine how much he gets per day.

Another sweet moment comes when someone opens the door but doesn’t recognize Newell and (understandably) thinks he’s the courier, to the point where she asks if he’s waiting for her to sign for the package. “So the first job I ever had was delivering newspapers and then moving on to delivering telegrams for Western Union,” Newell laughs. “It kind of takes me back to when I was a Western Union courier.”

Unfortunately, it will be difficult to get your hands on a Steam deck in the near future as Valve struggles to keep up with demand. However, the hardware is the real deal, so I’ll just keep praying for the angel Gabriel’s visit.

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