13 years ago, Gabe Newell pointed out the main mistake of developers - now players are urging modern creators to listen to him

Some Helldivers 2 fans believe that the creators should study the Valve boss's speech.

Over the past years, the Valve boss has repeatedly spoken in public and shared his thoughts on video game development. In 2026, players continue to recall his words and actively quote them.

Recently, a fragment of Gabe Newell's speech from 2013 went viral. At that time, he was talking to students and spoke on the topic of "hacks" (game exploits).

One of the participants' questions concerned security and technological risks associated with games as interactive digital products. This person expressed the opinion that it would be quite easy for a hacker to find a way to use the world created by developers in a way completely different from what they originally intended.

Gabe explained that "there are several types of hacking." And, in his opinion, one of the most serious mistakes game developers make is "to mistake for a 'hack' a player's action that is genuinely engaging."

As an example, Gabe Newell recalled an instructive story that developers tell each other. It's about a murder that happened in the MMO game Ultima Online many years ago:

Lord British is a character of Richard Garriott, the author of Ultima. The murder became possible due to a technical glitch: after a server crash that interrupted an in-game event, the character's invulnerability was reset — another person took advantage of this and killed British.

Players, during the discussion of the fragment of Gabe Newell's speech, noted that his words are relevant for modern developers. For example, it was suggested to send the video to the employees of Arrowhead Game Studios — the creators of Helldivers 2. Earlier, the developers of this game were actively criticized for balance changes that "killed the fun."

Now the creators of Helldivers 2 are preparing to launch the next update with a new battle pass.