Valve Layoffs

I’m not entirely sure what Valve was even doing in that sphere; when last I checked, the Steam app was nothing more than a list of games you owned. Hardly profitable, but then again, it didn’t look like they’d spent more than a couple of bucks designing it, either.

That’s kind of like saying your PC is just an application storage device. From patching and license management/DRM to full community features and their push to bring pc gaming into the living room, they’re doing a lot more than that these days.

You just can’t help yourself can you?

Assuming it’s like the iOS client, you can also use it to chat and purchase items from the store. No great shakes, certainly, but you need an app for push notifications about items on your wishlist going on sale, instant messages from your friends, etc.

I meant the Steam Android app, hence my quoting rei.

ah, never mind. My mistake.

Whoops! There goes Valve’s Director of Business, Jason Holtman.

http://www.develop-online.net/news/43261/Jason-Holtman-leaves-Valve

Wow this is worrying. Very unusual. Almost wonder if there’s some kind of improprieties involved on one end or the other.

Seattle BitchX: time to step up!

Does this mean we are going to see a small influx of Kickstarter projects?

This is all very curious, what the hell went down over there?

Also:

Moby Francke, the art lead of TF2, is gone
Bay Raitt (lead of Source Filmmaker) is gone too

This is getting more and more surprising. What the hell just happened?

— Alan

This is crazy.

Didn’t Gabe recently say that Valve had to get better at firing people who may be extremely talented/competent but don’t fit in with their very unique corporate culture? Seems likely that’s what this is.

I know lots of smart people who, if left to themselves, would just surf reddit all day. They need to be managed on a weekly if not daily basis, and are great performers when properly incentivized and given direction. Those people probably wouldn’t do well at Valve.

Just a guess, obviously.

The art lead of TF2? What the heck.

http://www.diffchecker.com/h14Uhs74

Gabe’s firing everyone caught using Windows 8

I know lots of smart people who, if left to themselves, would just surf reddit all day. They need to be managed on a weekly if not daily basis, and are great performers when properly incentivized and given direction. Those people probably wouldn’t do well at Valve.

The people being let go don’t sound like they are like this.

These aren’t newbies to Valve but relatively long-term employees. To suddenly fire them because they don’t mix with corporate culture just seems weird.

— Alan

Agreed. I seriously doubt that the art lead for TF2 or the Business Director, the guy in chage of negotiating with publishers on Steam, were slacking off.