# Valve lays off several employees in hardware, mobile teams....



## Furious George (Feb 13, 2013)

> Moby Francke, Half-Life 2 character designer and Team Fortress 2 art lead
> Jason Holtman, director of business development for Steam and Steamworks
> Keith Huggins, character animator and animator for Team Fortress 2 ?Meet the? video series
> Tom Leonard, software engineer for Half-Life 2 and Left 4 Dead
> ...



I'm scared, mommy....


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## Deathbringerpt (Feb 13, 2013)

Well, they just lost a chunk of talented developers. Mostly animators and artists, the biggest loss being Realm Lovejoy and Moby Francke. They were the visual soul of all of Valve's games.

Fuck. I hope it doesn't show on their next games and they recoup on their loses. Animators and engineers are dime a dozen but they need some experienced people after this swipe.


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## dream (Feb 13, 2013)

Everything is perfectly fine in the empire of Valve, no need to pani-



> Matthew Russell, animator for Team Fortress 2 “Meet the” video series


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## αshɘs (Feb 13, 2013)

And the worse thing is, Valve might not even comment on this.


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## Krory (Feb 13, 2013)

So do you think this group is part of the list of 25 people that were laid off (including poor, poor Jeri)? Or in addition to? Either way, kind of scurry.


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## DedValve (Feb 13, 2013)

Its times like this where our faith is tested most. In Gabeth we trust.


hold me


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## dream (Feb 13, 2013)

Krory said:


> So do you think this group is part of the list of 25 people that were laid off (including poor, poor Jeri)? Or in addition to? Either way, kind of scurry.



It should be part of the 25 that were laid off...I hope.


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## Krory (Feb 13, 2013)

It's interesting that these positions are being called "redundant" in some articles.


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## Majinsaga (Feb 13, 2013)

Well damn, that sucks. It's never a good thing when someone loses their job. Especially really talented people. Although I have no doubts some studios already have their eye on them. Valve made a big mistake.


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## Deathbringerpt (Feb 13, 2013)

Krory said:


> It's interesting that these positions are being called "redundant" in some articles.



Some of them are while others were fucking relevant. I still say the worse losses by far were the artists.


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## Shirker (Feb 13, 2013)

Valve, what're you even doing?


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## Furious George (Feb 13, 2013)

Do you think they got fired for suggesting that they start development on Half-Life 3 before 2014?

I know very little about the industry but I'm pretty sure it happened exactly like that.


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## Krory (Feb 13, 2013)

They got fired for suggesting they start development on Half-Life 3. _Ever_.

Then when they suggested Portal 3 or Left 4 Dead 3, Gabe just started throwing people out windows.


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## Mael (Feb 13, 2013)

Or eating them.


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## Furious George (Feb 13, 2013)

Definitely eating them.


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## Krory (Feb 13, 2013)

Eating it is.


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## αshɘs (Feb 13, 2013)

Well he did mention recently how aggressive one needs to be about firing people


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## Utopia Realm (Feb 13, 2013)

It seems Valve were on the crossroads and even mentioning "something" 3 and shit started flying. Hopefully they recover.


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## Shirker (Feb 13, 2013)

"So my nice turned 3 this year. Here, I took a picture of her on my phone."
"Aw, that's adorable, I... why's Mr. Newell running towards us with that look on his face?"


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## Krory (Feb 13, 2013)




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## Majinsaga (Feb 13, 2013)




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## Krory (Feb 13, 2013)




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## Axl Low (Feb 13, 2013)

And People say EA and Activsion are the devil? And Valve is flawless? 
Gabe just told them to get out of their thrones.
Well and he is fat enough to sit in both.
So there is a plus.

These people are Valve's like Bread and butter, A-Team, Starting Line up. 
Like what are they thinking?
I hope this is fake.

Like that handful of people can be a small company by themselves for all the talent between them.


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## αshɘs (Feb 13, 2013)

maybe this happened then?


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## Krory (Feb 13, 2013)

Again, I'm not familiar with Valve but I find it hard to believe all of those people failed a "performance review."

If that was all, why wouldn't they be allowed to talk about it?


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## αshɘs (Feb 13, 2013)

yeah, that does sound extreme


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## Krory (Feb 13, 2013)

As of August 2012, they had around 400 employees. At a company like Valve, is it really feasible that 6% (at least - they're saying around 25 but I've seen at least one article say around 30) of their employees failed a performance review? Especially some of _those_ people. Maybe it was used as an excuse to get rid of people but that doesn't feel like a Valve move unless they really are more evil than we've been led on to all these years.


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## αshɘs (Feb 13, 2013)

my inital thoughts regarding this were either efficiency or directional shift related. dunno really

also



he's a hardware engineer


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## αshɘs (Feb 13, 2013)




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## Krory (Feb 13, 2013)

So... typical, basic "damage control" with no information.


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## Naruto (Feb 13, 2013)

I'm getting really tired of the gaming industry refusing to communicate with their customer base.

Yes, Gabe, we know you don't have to talk to us about it. No, we don't expect you to cancel projects.

But the internet loves you and we would like you to go the extra mile for us. Kind of disappointed that you aren't doing it.


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## dream (Feb 14, 2013)

A part of me doesn't mind Valve not telling us why these people were fired.  I suspect that some were fired for not meeting performance standards while others were fired for not being useful to Valve or the direction it is going in.  Either one of those reasons are something that I wouldn't want spread all over the internet if I was one of those employees.


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## αshɘs (Feb 14, 2013)

I agree with you, but Naruto does have a point. Honestly, Valve are one of the most notorious when it comes to communication. Or rather lack of. Everytime this same shit happens and it annoys me to no end. Just at look at CES and the Steambox "reveal". It was chaotic. This non-unified, no-PR role, casual type communication and secrecy routine is just...bah...

A random site picks up a seemingly small news or rumor, then it escalates on other sites and in the community to a huge degree. Hype, vitriol, speculations are all that's left. This goes on for hours, days even and if we're lucky Doug or Gabe comments on it.

Of course they're not entitled to say anything and these escalations aren't even their fault. They don't answer to anyone, have no shareholders, no stocks and they probably burnt themselves enough with pre-release HL2 to not wanting to jump again into something that could bite them in the ass. That's fine. But I think their established and potential customers, plus their loyal fanbase deserve to be more in the clear, to be reassured sometimes and not being treated to guessing games.

If they're really serious about entering the living room and getting casual gamers into the steam ecosystem, then this shit is not going to fly imo. Because I assume Joe Casual will want answers to questions such as "what? why? when? how? how much?". And that quickly, from one clear source.

/rant

oh btw they hired an ex-Microsoft Xbox employee


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## Krory (Feb 14, 2013)

Getting rid of Jeri Ellsworth for Louis Baringa? Wut?


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## Deathbringerpt (Feb 14, 2013)

Well, I'm one of the 4 people on Earth whose favorite game controller is the 360's so I'm cool with that.

Not that...not that I actually plan to buy a Steambox though. Steam is all I need from you, Gaben.


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## Hatifnatten (Feb 14, 2013)

Deathbringerpt said:


> Well, I'm on of the 4 people on Earth whose favorite game controller is the 360's so I'm cool with that.
> 
> Not that...not that I actually plan to buy a Steambox though. Steam is all I need from you, Gaben.


Favorite?


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## Deathbringerpt (Feb 14, 2013)

My biggest shame as a gamer.


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## Hatifnatten (Feb 14, 2013)

It's ok, we all have skeletons in our closets


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## Deathbringerpt (Feb 14, 2013)

Thought this was a relevant post? Nah, just a dumb video.

*From the Halo Bulletin @ HaloWaypoint*



Hatifnatten said:


> It's ok, we all have skeletons in our closets



I feel you, bro.


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## Krory (Feb 25, 2013)

The only source I've found so far are claims from Arthur Gies - he's saying Doug Lombardi has officially left Valve.


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## dream (Feb 25, 2013)

Krory said:


> The only source I've found so far are claims from Arthur Gies - he's saying Doug Lombardi has officially left Valve.



If true, it's time to panic.


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## Krory (Feb 25, 2013)

He's rationalizing (I think he's doing it as bombastic sarcasm) that Valve is going over to full-time retailer and abandoning being a developer, considering who they've gotten rid of.


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## Krory (Feb 25, 2013)

Oh Lord, it looks like it's true.

His  indicates he worked at Valve from January 2000 until February 2013.

Director of Educational Programs Leslie Redd has also listed on her Linkedin that she left.


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## Deathbringerpt (Feb 25, 2013)

Krory said:


> He's rationalizing (I think he's doing it as bombastic sarcasm) that Valve is going over to full-time retailer and abandoning being a developer, considering who they've gotten rid of.



Considering most of the important people being fired aren't actually game developers, I very much doubt that.


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## Krory (Feb 25, 2013)

>Character designer
>Character animator
>Software designer
>Artist
>Test lead
>Animator
>Engine programmer
>Animator

Those are developers.


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## Deathbringerpt (Feb 25, 2013)

Both animators worked exclusively on the "Meet the" series and artists don't really count, despite being pretty a big loss.

Plus Gaben said, despite the overall silence, that these layoffs aren't affecting their current projects so this retailer transformation seems to be dramatizing from where I stand. It all depends if Valve hires new people for the vacant positions, this shit isn't necessarily permanent. Their development teams are actually pretty fucking meaty.

At least I hope to God they don't switch, that'd be a gigantic fucking waste.


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## Krory (Feb 25, 2013)

Arthur is saying it's not true now.

And is now getting pissed at people who are angry at him for saying it's true.


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## αshɘs (Feb 25, 2013)

seems to be false and he's still there

updated his linkedin profile now

and


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## Stumpy (Feb 25, 2013)

Arthur such a troll


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## αshɘs (Feb 25, 2013)

people were basing this news on his linkedin profile. he just didn't update it it seems lol


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## Krory (Feb 25, 2013)

The problem seemed to be it _was_ updated, I thought.


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## αshɘs (Feb 25, 2013)

apparently this is how linkedin works



> Don't ever use Linked-in as confirmation. It's a horrible website that people frequently use incorrectly. Many times, instead of "Date - Present" being displayed, if the user enters the data in the wrong field, it will show "Date - <current month/year>," which looks like an end date but actually isn't. For example, if Doug doesn't touch his Linkedin account, on March 1st that entry will say: "January 2000 - March 2013."


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## Deathbringerpt (Feb 26, 2013)

Hard to believe this system even works.


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## αshɘs (May 18, 2013)

sorry for the bump, buts here's a sort of update to this story. 



It's about Ellsworth's ongoing project - Augmented Reality glasses - , but they touch upon the events at Valve



> So if the idea is so fantastic, why did Valve give it up? The Technical Illusions team wasn't completely comfortable talking about it. Ellsworth in particular struggled not to speak ill of her former employer. "I came on and I recruited all of my friends, and my colleagues, all the people I could find, and a lot of them are still there. I wish them the best in what they're doing, and I'd hate to do anything to hurt them or derail things they've got going," she says.
> 
> Still, before long, part of the story comes out. Valve's hardware initiative was researching both augmented reality and virtual reality... and the virtual reality supporters won out. "You can imagine that Valve is known for a certain class of game," says Johnson. Augmented reality simply isn't as suitable for the first-person shooters that Valve has built its reputation on.
> 
> ...


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## αshɘs (Jun 28, 2013)

Figured I post this here. It's an interview with Ellsworth where she talks about her project I linked above and the culture, morale at Valve, the day she's been fired. I think it's pretty informative. It's a 6 part interview, she talks about Valve in the first 3 parts.


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## Stumpy (Jun 28, 2013)

Valve fired those people because they were spending all their time working on this:



And thought it was something worth Valve's time and money. Maybe they should have been herded off that AR project and put back on game controllers or something, but Ms. Ellsworth there sounds like she would not have been very content with that anyway.

I'm sure she is very good at what she does, but, as far as what she had to offer Valve, she seems to think too highly of herself.

Also, nobody wants to wear dumb glasses. Especially those of us who already wear prescription glasses or who never take our shades off


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## lacey (Jun 28, 2013)

Hm, even with the circumstances surrounding it, it's still a shame. From the known list, that's quite a lot of talent they let go. And the fact that they're not really communicating with the customers is irritating.


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## Deathbringerpt (Jun 28, 2013)

Gaben was cool enough to give them the project, no extra bullshit. That was at least a sign of good faith. There's a plethora of companies who would just hoard the fuck out of the projects they cancel.


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## Stumpy (Jun 28, 2013)

♥ Comatose ♥ said:


> Hm, even with the circumstances surrounding it, it's still a shame. From the known list, that's quite a lot of talent they let go. And the fact that they're not really communicating with the customers is irritating.


I don't understand why people think companies should be giving the public every little detail about why they hire or fire people. Valve is running a business. People get let go sometimes. We don't have any right to information on why they were let go, but we pretty much got it now with those videos. The team working on the augmented reality stuff was not working on stuff that Valve was interested in.


Deathbringerpt said:


> Gaben was cool enough to give them the project, no extra bullshit. That was at least a sign of good faith. There's a plethora of companies who would just hoard the fuck out of the projects they cancel.


Maybe I'm just being another Gaben internet dick sucker right now, but if he of all people has zero interest in holding onto that project I think that should be worrying for their little startup.


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## The World (Jun 28, 2013)

Valve stahp

wat r u doing Valve


did Gabe eat all the assets?


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