BAFTA have announced that Valve's Gabe Newell is to receive the Academy's highest accolade, an Academy Fellowship. Only five others have been bestowed this award, starting from 2007 when it was introduced.

BAFTA itself is the United Kingdom's equivalent to the Oscar's in the United States, and they began to recognise and award the creative video game industry in 1998. In 2007 they introduced the Academy Fellowship to recognise special contributions by individuals. Previous winners include: Minecraft creator Notch, Peter Molyneux, Nolan Bushnell, Will Wright and Shigeru Miyamoto.

Gabe Newell, being the awesome guy behind perhaps one of the most important video game companies today, definitely deserves this recognition. For bringing Steam to the masses, the Half-Life series and more. Harvey Elliot, Chair of the BAFTA Games Committee, said:

"enjoying great critical and commercial success with phenomenally popular franchises such as Portal and Half-Life, his work in giving back to the games industry through developing and showcasing other games makers has been outstanding".

Newell himself seemed pretty chuffed with being chosen to receive the award:

"It is an honor for myself and everyone at Valve to be presented such an award by one of the world's most respected and recognised organisations [...]Valve owes a tremendous thanks to many in the UK – to those who have played our games, to the great support of the UK press, and to UK-based creative contributors such as Garry Newman. I look forward to accepting this prestigious honor on behalf of everyone in our community."