Famous Valve devs fired or leave the company on their own

[SirKicksalot]

Check the difference between the employee roster one month ago and today. 25 people were laid off so the list is not complete.

People You Should Care About That Are Not Jeri Ellsworth:

- Jason Holtman, director of Business Development, in charge of relations with 3rd party devs and one of the key people behind Steam's success
- Moby Francke, lead TF2 artist and HL2 character artist
- Tom Leonard, AI dude that previously worked at Looking Glass
- Realm Lovejoy, one of the Narbacular Drop people, Portal artist. I think some of the leaked Episode 3 and SoB stuff was made by her, but don't quote me on that.
- Elan Ruskin, one of their top programmers
- Bay Raitt, who created Gollum's facial animation system and was the lead of Source Film Maker.

More ex-Weta/ILM/etc guys are no longer with the company.
On the other hand they hired the Weta employee responsible for the look of Neytiri, Jake Sully, Tintin and Haddock! It's sort of amusing that the fired people were part of the old LOTR-King Kong cycle but the new guy is from the Avatar era.

[Unaco]

Oh no! The sky is falling!

[Rauten]

No, the sky ain't falling, but it's a company from which you rarely, ever, hear anything about firing people, then all of a sudden they're 25 members less and a nice bunch of them from the hardware division, which just seems strange given all the recent focus on "Steambox this, Steambox that".

It ain't falling, but it's taking a weird hue.

[LTK]

So, with a flat company structure... who's doing the firing? We all read about the regular peer reviews all employees are subject to, so that would either mean that there is some consensus about certain employees no longer being productive, or that there was a consensus to move away from a certain plan that these people were involved in.

Or we might just be looking into things too much. I mean, surely people have been fired from Valve before? If not fired, then at the very least quit their job in a mutual decision that their position at the company was no longer working for them.

[Heliocentric]

So, with a flat company structure... who's doing the firing?

They draw straws? Wrestle off? roeshamboe?

[somini]

They draw straws? Wrestle off? roeshamboe?

TF2 server with "You are fired" random drops.

[neema_t]

I had no idea Jeri Ellsworth worked for Valve. That interests me greatly, I'd love to know what she (and Valve in general, really) came up with in their R&D team, but I wonder if this means they've canned all that wearable computer stuff?

[Lambchops]

Realm Lovejoy

That is surely not a real name!

[SirKicksalot]

I had no idea Jeri Ellsworth worked for Valve. That interests me greatly, I'd love to know what she (and Valve in general, really) came up with in their R&D team, but I wonder if this means they've canned all that wearable computer stuff?

From her Twitter, four days ago:

"I'm in the middle of an exciting project right now. I think it will be a big hit."

That is surely not a real name!

It is!

[Rauten]

From her Twitter, four days ago:

"I'm in the middle of an exciting project right now. I think it will be a big hit."

Sooooo it hit Gabe's reservoir of donuts?

sorry

[Drake Sigar]

No, the sky ain't falling, but it's a company from which you rarely, ever, hear anything about firing people, then all of a sudden they're 25 members less and a nice bunch of them from the hardware division, which just seems strange given all the recent focus on "Steambox this, Steambox that".

It ain't falling, but it's taking a weird hue.

Indeed. Valve are very stable, more than stable even. With smart business strategies (employ the modders, treat your customers like human fucking beings, etc) they've grown very prosperous these past years, while all we seem to hear from everyone else are million dollar losses and layoffs left and right. So yeah, little surprising that even Valve has made some layoffs. Or these people left of their own free will. Or... wait, are we sure they existed at all?

[somini]

Sooooo it hit Gabe's reservoir of donuts?

sorry

Won't somebody think of HL3?

[Smuggo]

Won't somebody think of HL3?

Why are former Valve employees doing their own thing when they should be making HL3?

[soldant]

So, with a flat company structure... who's doing the firing?

Like somebody else said in the comments on the RPS article, democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what's for dinner. It could be the aggressive peer reviews, or hell maybe everything we know about Valve is wrong and GabeN gets his way by being surrounded by sycophants. We're probably not going to find out the complete story beyond a reason for why they've been released.

Which is no mystery, obviously they put a bad bet on Android development or whatever, figured out it wasn't going anywhere, and had the team removed because they weren't useful anywhere else. Fair enough, Valve are a business, it's their prerogative to release staff that they have no use for. Can't criticise them for that.

But like Rauten said, we don't often hear of stuff like this from Valve. Most people seem to leave on their terms with happy, fond memories, not "Just got fired, off to look for jobs!" I'm not critical of this decision at all though, it's only big news because it's Valve. Anybody else did it, you'd get a "Oh well sucks for the employees, best of luck" with maybe one or two people bitching about big business. Just another example of the weird place Valve holds in gaming.

[His Master's Voice]

So yeah, little surprising that even Valve has made some layoffs.

I'm pretty sure Valve did not have to lay off anyone, except maybe people who really could not re-locate to another project (like hardware gals/guys that did their jobs and aren't really suited to work on TF2 hats or someting). Contrary to what some people seem to think, Valve is just another company. Yes, there are better paying jobs out there and job fatigue can hit anyone. People change jobs, big deal.

[soldant]

I'm pretty sure Valve did not have to lay off anyone, except maybe people who really could not re-locate to another project

Yes, they just left of their own volition...

They appear to have terminated their little hardware division and dismissed the staff that they couldn't find a place for, as you said. Nothing wrong with that but I don't know how this doesn't count as "not having to lay off anyone".

[gundato]

Yes, they just left of their own volition...

They appear to have terminated their little hardware division and dismissed the staff that they couldn't find a place for, as you said. Nothing wrong with that but I don't know how this doesn't count as "not having to lay off anyone".

I think his point was from a monetary standpoint.

It wasn't "Sorry, we can't pay you" but was instead "Sorry, but you just aren't a good fit for us now that we are outsourcing this"

[soldant]

I think his point was from a monetary standpoint.

That's still laying off staff. I don't have a problem with it but let's not mince words here, Valve don't have a use for them and are getting rid of them. We don't need Valve-inspired neologisms or doublespeak to change reality.

[Dead Herald]

Won't somebody think of HL3?

I did think of HL3. Unfortunately I dropped a half-eaten cruller on the thought and Gaben devoured it.

[gundato]

That's still laying off staff. I don't have a problem with it but let's not mince words here, Valve don't have a use for them and are getting rid of them. We don't need Valve-inspired neologisms or doublespeak to change reality.

You are correct, but layoffs also has a connotation of "Ran out of money".