Valve boss Gabe Newell is now an FFXIV player, and as you might expect he’s quite excited about the arrival of the Steam Deck release date. So excited that he went out and hand-delivered the first few Steam Decks to players who happen to live near Valve’s office in Bellevue, Washington. Naturally, GabeN made time to talk about the critically-acclaimed MMORPG while he was out.
The full video below is an absolute delight. There are Valve fans who are over the moon to meet GabeN, folks who don’t have a clue who he is, and a whole lot of awkward shuffling as people decide to react to a company president hand-delivering a hot new bit of gaming tech. He even appears to hand out a few free Steam Decks to curious onlookers.
At one point, GabeN asks someone “What do you play in Final Fantasy?” The Steam Deck recipient in question responds that he’s a Dragoon main, with a backup in Paladin when queues get bad. (Smart plan.) Gaben responds that “I’m trying to level up my White Mage right now.”
So next time you run into a White Mage while doing your FFXIV levelling roulettes, remember that it might just be GabeN himself.
As he says numerous times in the video, his email address is [email protected]. GabeN earnestly claims that he reads every single message that comes his way, which might just be the most surprising revelation of all.
