Hasta La Gadget!

Yesterday, we reported that hardware hacker Jeri Ellsworth, who joined Valve in 2012, had been fired. She made the announcement via Twitter, but didn’t provide any details about what had caused such an action. Now reports are rolling in that more than two dozen other Valve employees have been laid off, with nothing more than speculation about what is happening.

Reports Forbes, between 25 and 30 Valve employees have been laid off in addition to Ellsworth, who kicked the round off. One of the employees given the boot is Jason Holtman, the company’s Director of Business Development. Holtman is responsible for working with Steamworks, the Steam store, and Source engine licensing.

Although it is possible that Valve is experiencing some financial problems, speculation has it that the company is undergoing some restructuring, with it possibly focusing on its hardware and Android teams. Whether this is because the company is changing its focus, or because it is bringing in fresh blood to revamp its projects – or whether it is either of these things – is unknown.

Valve has not said anything about the lay offs. It has been long expected that the company will be releasing a Steam Box in the near future, and so this dumping of employees could be a move related to the device. Regardless, it has no doubt been a sad day for many Valve employees who have now found themselves without jobs, and we wish them luck in finding a permanent roost elsewhere.

Update: The folks over at Engadget have received a statement from Valve regarding the layoffs: “No, we aren’t canceling any projects. 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.”

[via Forbes]

Valve reportedly laying off dozens of employees [UPDATE] is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Valve head Gabe Newell says the company isn’t stopping any planned hardware initiatives, despite reports of layoffs at the company and the news that hardware lead Jeri Ellsworth was fired. In a statement issued to Engadget, Newell said:

“We don’t usually talk about personnel matters for a number of reasons. 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. 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.”

When pushed, company reps wouldn’t confirm or deny layoffs at Valve, nor would they comment on the confirmed exit of Ellsworth. Valve’s big push this year is hardware, as evidenced by the company’s presence at CES 2013 with a variety of living room PC prototypes, dubbed by many as the “Steambox.” The company’s also working on virtual reality and wearable computing technology — we’ll hear more about Valve’s VR plans in mid-March at the Game Developer’s Conference — beyond its enormously popular game distribution platform, Steam.

Filed under: Gaming, HD

Comments

Jeri Ellsworth, a hardware hacker from Seattle who was hired by Valve last year to work on game hardware, just announced on Twitter that she has been fired. No other information was offered, such as the reasons for her sudden departure or what she plans to do now, aside from “new exciting projects.” Valve hasn’t said anything about the decision, either.

The tweet showed up at 9:40pm EST, and was both simple and direct, stating: “Yup. Got fired today. Time for new exciting projects.” She hasn’t yet responded to any inquiries about what went down and what she plans on doing next. Ellsworth is perhaps most popularly known for the Commodore 64 emulator joystick she created before joining Valve, which sold over half a million units.

The folks over at Engadget interviewed Ellsworth back in September 2012, during which time she is said to have expressed enthusiasm for her job, speaking fondly of the company’s work environment. During that time, she said that her team was working on the development of a controller to make playing Steam games more enjoyable.

Per the interview, it was obvious that Ellsworth hadn’t had any plans to leave the company, having stated that her team has a one-year goal for creating the controller, among other things. What went wrong that prompted the company to fire her is unknown, and there’s a good chance an explanation will never surface. Still, we’ll be keeping an eye out for more details, so stay tuned.

[via Twitter]

Valve fires hardware hacker Jeri Ellsworth is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

During the keynote at the 2013 DICE Summit today, director J.J. Abrams and Valve CEO Gabe Newell sat on stage and discussed storytelling in video games and movies. However, what started off as a friendly critique of each others’ work ended with the announcement that they are in talks to make a movie together based on either the Half-Life or Portal series.

The two briefly discussed the possibility, and obviously, details are quite slim at this point, but Newell said that the two are “going to try and figure out” if they can “make a Half-Life movie or a Portal movie together.” The two discussed various storytelling methods during the keynote, using clips from Valve games and some of Abrams’ movies that he has directed in the past.

According to Abrams and Newell, they’re wanting to move the discussion further along in a more serious way, and they now hope to collaborate on a film based on either the Half-Life or Portal series. Obviously, the collaboration is still in its early stages, and it could very well dissolve later on if it turns out that things don’t work out how they’d like.

J.J. Abrams is the director behind the new Star Trek films, including the newest and upcoming Star Trek: Into Darkness. He’s also known for directing the TV series Lost, as well as Fringe. Valve CEO Gabe Newell is obviously behind the Half-Life and Portal series, as well as Counter-Strike, Team Fortress 2, and the Left 4 Dead series.

[via Polygon]

J.J. Abrams and Gabe Newell in talks over Half-Life or Portal movie is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Valve has rolled out an update to Steam Greenlight, bringing with it a handful of improvements based on requests and feedback from users. The improvements are primarily for users, but developers are also tossed a bone with a new stats feature. Among the other improvements is the ability to better organize and discover titles in your queue.

First up is the new “Ask me again later” feature, which allows users to skip a title, which will disappear for one month, then reappear for you to reconsider. If you change your mind about it before the month is up, you can pull up the title via the new menu “Items to Revisit Later,” where it will be nestled waiting for you. For developers, statistics have been added that allows monitoring of item views, votes, and things relevant to both.

Users now have the ability to follow items in addition to favoriting them. When an item is followed notifications will be provided to the user when its developer makes any new announcements. This feature makes it easier to keep tabs on things you like without manually checking various items periodically. With this update, items already favorited will be automatically followed.

Finally, users can also create a collection of titles, which now allow announcements from the user to those who are following the collection. Such a collection can be titles that are favorites, or can be titles in a specific category or trend. Likewise, users can follow other collections, and will receive updates if the collection’s creator posts an announcement.

[via Steam Community]

Valve releases Steam Greenlight update, brings with it a handful of improvements is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.