Valve Responds to Reports of Mass Layoff; Projects on Track
All projects are still a go despite who has or has not been fired, says Valve.
After a report went live stating that Jeri Ellsworth and around 24 other employees of Valve Software were let go, Gamasutra received news that Valve's director of business development Jason Holtman was part of that list. Even more, a comparison between the current employee directory and one stored last month by the Internet Archive shows that nine are no longer currently listed.
According to the original report, affected employees were asked not to speak about the specifics. But there's speculation that the cuts weren't made over performance issues (as in Valve is cutting the slackers), but that the cuts are driven by "company challenges".
The biggest surprise cut was Jeri Ellsworth who not too long ago was publicly talking about Valve's hardware efforts. She worked in the studio's year-old hardware division and indicated that hardware testing would actually begin in 2013. This division was working in tandem with Steam's Big Picture Mode, creating a hardware solution to the control-based limitations found in many titles offered on Valve's Steam platform.
So with Ellsworth out of the picture, does that mean Valve's hardware plans have been canned too (outside Piston)? No. According to Valve bossman Gabe Newell, all projects remain in active development.
"We don't usually talk about personnel matters for a number of reasons," Newell told Engadget. "There seems to be an unusual amount of speculation about some recent changes here, so I thought I'd take the unusual step of addressing them."
"No, we aren't canceling any projects," he continued. "No, we aren't changing any priorities or projects we've been discussing. No, this isn't about Steam or Linux or hardware or [insert game name here]. We're not going to discuss why anyone in particular is or isn't working here."
Engadget said that Valve reps would not confirm or deny the layoffs at Valve, nor would they comment on the confirmed exit of Ellsworth. The site also points out that we've already seen Valve in action on the hardware side this year at CES 2013 with its Piston project in association with Xi3 Corporation. The company is also slated to reveal its VR plans this year at the Game Developer's Conference next month.
Still, what's the big staff purge all about? As stated on Wednesday, it's unusual to associate the words "fired" and "layoff" with the Half-Life developer -- it's a peculiar predicament for such a secretive, lucrative studio. Perhaps we'll know more before the whistle officially closes the week on Friday.

if purging 25 employees doesn't change anything, then what the hell were those people doing?
Except money isn't the reason, fail.
if purging 25 employees doesn't change anything, then what the hell were those people doing?
My bad, I'm in investment/business mode at the moment
Also, i am fairly relieved by this news. I'm getting older and gaming is becoming a more casual part of my life and i can definately see myself getting a console in the future instead of pc and both microsoft and sony's consoles don't look particularly appealing. At least Valve seems to understand that they are providing a service and giving the customer the best possible experience trumps everything else.
But a bit of patience will pay off. If they hire new people for those positions then the terminations were because those people were an issue. If they aren't rehired, then Valve had some extra employees to cut. Any successful business has to cut off dead weight. Why would they make cuts NOW though when they're clearly forging ahead with ambitious new projects? The people that were cut were the exact positions that would be working with this project.
-An ex-Valve employee
Or maybe it has to do with something else.
We wouldn't have to be so expensive if sh*t didn't cost so much! Every company is filled with greedy leaders that try to cut out the competition and get as much money out of your pocket as possible. Apple is a prime example. Try telling me with a straight face that Apple sells computers at a reasonable price. It's not about offering a good product at a fair price. Those days are gone and that is why we are all desperate to make more because everything is overpriced you just don't know because it's been that way since... (I think it was the 50's when most people made plenty more than they needed.)
That's probably why they were purged. Remember Valve doesn't have heads or anything like that, but just people who come together for projects. These people probably weren't doing anything or weren't coming together. Its pretty much the entire rule book for Valve, come together and help each other on projects you could be most useful in.
Ignoring the "im f*cking special" CEO's who take in on average 40-250 million a year, or the CEO's who runs the company in the ground and retires with over 1 billion up to 8 billion in some cases. Yeah you come back to me with that 2 million dollar figure and try to make me feel bad for not thinking $60,000 a year for making your product exist in the first place is something that says "im special."