Valve hit with layoffs [Updated]

[Update] GameRanx has some additional information regarding who exactly was let go, which was found by Garry’s Mod creator Garry Newman. Turns out it wasn’t just folks in the hardware division.

– 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
– Realm Lovejoy, artist for Half-Life 2, Portal, and Left 4 Dead. She was also part of the original DigiPen-turned-Valve team that created Narbacular Drop, the inspiration for Portal
– Marc Nagel, test lead for Half-Life, Counter-Strike, and patch updates
– Bay Raitt, animator for Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2, and Portal
– Elan Ruskin, engine programmer for Left 4 Dead, Portal 2, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
– Matthew Russell, animator for Team Fortress 2 “Meet the” video series

[Original Story] Today, Gamasutra reports that between 25-30 employees have been laid off from Valve today, in addition to the company’s Director of Business Jason Holtman. So far, there’s been no word on why these people were let go, but it’s been confirmed that those affected were from the company’s Android and hardware division. Those laid off were told not to say anything to press, so I doubt we’ll hear much about this in the coming days. Unless of course someone posts on Reddit. I hear that’s all the rage right now.

Honestly, I’m a little lost for words. I keep hearing the word “redundancy” on my Twitter feed regarding this incident. Hopefully, this was just housecleaning and making a lean and mean department, as opposed to anything else. Regardless, I’ll keep everyone up to date as details come through.

via Gamasutra, GameRanx