Article: Report: Valve Released Nearly 25 Employees Today as Company Makes Large Decisions About Its Future

[Shawn Zipay]

An unconfirmed number of employees were reportedly let go from Valve today, Tuesday, February 13. While the specifics are not known, at least one confirmed firing is noted.

That is for Jeri Ellsworth. She was hired back in 2012 to help design and work on the hardware for the Steam Box, designing and testing prototype controllers. She takes with her not only a wealth of knowledge, but also her extensive pinball table collection. She leaves behind a rather expensive prototyping lab, complete with 3D printers, laser cutters, and other devices she requested that the company purchase to help with prototyping.

Some reports place the estimated number of firings at 25. Murmurings of a "great cleansing" taking place have been floating around. These firings are also reportedly part of some "large decisions" being made about the future of the company. These layoffs are reportedly focused on the hardware and Android development departments.

Something major must be going on given Valve's general attitude towards firing employees, let alone 25 of them all at once. Best of luck to all employees affected by this.

[Anarchy1]

And somehow, the drones on /r/gaming will still praise Valve. Probably for not selfishly hogging all these employees.

[defragen1]

hardware and Android development departments are pretty much irrelevant because they don't actually develop the games. Its almost like firing out sourced workers.

[Porkfist]

No need to be down on valve, we have no idea why they were let go. Perhaps these people weren't producing or there was no revenue stream coming in to support their projects.

Sometimes the harsh reality of business is, if it doesn't make dollars, then it doesn't make sense.

[Stev0esque]

No need to be down on valve, we have no idea why they were let go. Perhaps these people weren't producing or there was no revenue stream coming in to support their projects.

Sometimes the harsh reality of business is, if it doesn't make dollars, then it doesn't make sense.

I don't think its a problem with valve, rather the problem with every single Internet Commenter (or "expert" as they see themselves) who shits themselves when this happens to other companies but have a different reaction when Valve does something of the sort.

[Anarchy1]

Yep. If EA had laid off 25 employees, the internet world would be going crazy. Valve lays off 25 employees, barely a word.

I'm not criticizing Valve/EA/etc., I'm more criticizing hypocritical internet commenters.

[Shawn Zipay]

Barely a word? I've seen more about the Valve firings than when other companies lay off people. Far more.

I'm not exactly sure where you guys were looking, but there was a pretty big deal made about this for the simple statement that "Valve doesn't fire people." Everywhere I looked, that's what people kept echoing and that they were in disbelief that this happened. So much crazy speculation was abound on this one.