Gabe Newell, the head of Steam creator Valve Corporation, has revealed that the company is considering moving its operations to New Zealand in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Newell, who has been in New Zealand since the start of the pandemic, told local news outlet News 1 there is “strong interest” in bringing Valve to the country, with multiple employees expressing interest in the idea.

"There's a lot of interest at a grass roots level inside of the company to have some people move," said Newell.

The reasoning, as Newell described, is directly related to New Zealand’s handling of the pandemic compared to the United States. “I’m talking to these people who've literally been locked in their houses except to go out for groceries for the last nine months and I'm like, 'Oh look, here I am at a motorsports race, or here I am at Starship, at the hospital talking to doctors or reviewing optic nerve damage from Covid-19 patients because of my interest in neuroscience,' and they're like, 'Yeah, I'm still at home — can we come to New Zealand now?'” Newell said.