Gabe Newell stepped away from game development after Portal 2 due to team reaction. Valve CEO Gabe Newell reduced his involvement in game development after the release of Portal 2, as his colleagues often unconditionally agreed with his ideas.According to Josh Wyer, lead designer on Portal 2, Newell realized that he was surrounded by people who agreed with him on everything: He always wanted to be part of a team, but being Gabe and taking his position, it never really worked out.Because people were like, “Whatever you say,” and he was more like, “No, no, no, I want to be part of a team and come up with ideas.” That was very difficult for people, so I think there was a period where he stepped back and said, “Okay, I guess I just can't interact with everyone that way. #game