The most popular CEO in the gaming industry is also extremely accessible over email

Gabe Newell, the co-founder and CEO of the popular games company Valve Corporation, is arguably the most popular executive in the gaming industry.

But he's also extremely accessible over email, apparently.

Valve makes the Steam network for distributing its massive library of online games, but one Steam customer said he sent his issue to the company's support line but got no response for a week.

So, he tried Newell's personal email address:

On the photo-sharing site imgur (via Kotaku), the Steam user said, "I may have got a little passive aggressive, but I didn't want it to end without knowing him I was still a fan!"

Just a few hours later, the Steam user got a response from Newell:

The Steam user quickly responded:

Then, just a couple of hours later, the Steam user got an email notification that his issue had finally been fixed:

After expressing his gratitude over email to Newell, the Steam user then asked if he could post the full exchange online, saying, "I feel your fans and customers would love to see that you take a personal interest in ensuring every individual that uses your products is taken care of."

Here's Gabe's response:

It's not uncommon for company executives to respond to fan or customer emails, but Newell obviously handled this particular case with class.

Thanks again to Kotaku, where we first saw this story.